Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence
by turboturbo on Monday June 22, 2020 @02:41AM
(#23597813)
This is logically incorrect. The universe may well be infinite, but that doesn’t imply it must harbour life
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence
by dTal on Monday June 22, 2020 @08:36AM
(#23599482)
I believe this would be correct if there were no examples of life already extant - but the fact that we exist shows that the probability of life and civilization arising is strictly greater than 0. Given an infinite universe with a flat probability distribution (i.e. there's nothing particularly special about our little corner), any >0 probability will occur an infinite number of times.
I highly doubt the actual universe is really infinite, however. Incomprehensibly big, yes.
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence
by Kiro on Monday June 22, 2020 @03:44AM
(#23598056)
Not enough proof to win the bet, so right now you're losing.
Re:My dad launched the quest to find alien intelligence
by s1artibartfast on Monday June 22, 2020 @10:21AM
(#23600465)
Right now, nobody has proof. While aliens can be discovered at a future date, you can never prove that they don’t exist. It is a very safe bet because they can not prove a negative.
I don't see how causality plays into the question at hand. The parent post didn't bet that we could interact with alien life, but if it exists at all. If it can be demonstrated that the actual universe is infinite, it will follow that alien live exist, independent of if we can interact with it.