Time need not end in the multiverse

[Swede]

GAMBLERS already had enough to think about without factoring the end of time into their calculations. But a year after a group of cosmologists argued that they should, another team says time need not end after all.

It all started with this thought experiment. In a back room in a Las Vegas casino, you are handed a fair coin to flip. You will not be allowed to see the outcome, and the moment the coin lands you will fall into a deep sleep. If the coin lands heads up, the dealer will wake you 1 minute later; tails, in 1 hour. Upon waking, you will have no idea how long you have just slept.

The dealer smiles: would you like to bet on heads or tails? Knowing it's a fair coin, you assume your odds are 50/50, so you choose tails. But the house has an advantage. The dealer knows you will almost certainly lose, because she is factoring in something you haven't: that we live in a multiverse.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128253.700-time-need-not-end-in-the-multiverse.html

[MADem]

1. Interesting as hell....but my head hurts! nt

[Kalidurga]

2. of course there are multiverses...

who really believes time just started 16 billion or so years ago?

[Mnemosyne]

5. I wish I lived in the one that George W. Bush, War Criminal, had never lived in the White House.

Welcome to DU, Kalidurga.

And I agree about the age of the Earth.

[ThoughtCriminal]

7. Greetings from a neighboring Multiverse

We have examined 10^124 universes. George W. Bush was President of the United States, Earth, in only 17 of them. Your universe is the only one where he was re-elected. How did that work out?

[Mnemosyne]

8. Total clusterfuck. Can I jump into your 'verse? Please, please, please! n/t

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. It could be worse

In 11 of the 16 of the universes in which Bush served one term, there was no election in 2004 - 7 due to elections being suspended and 3 are radioactive wastelands. And don't even ask about the President Cheney universe. There's only one, and nobody even wants to look.

[cstanleytech]

13. It worked about as well as those 2 terms with sarah palin worked out for you.

[DCKit]

3. My father's house has may mansions

Maybe those wacky Mormons are on to something!

[napoleon_in_rags]

4. Probability at an instant: The creation of the next Newton.

So the Calculus came to define velocity at an instant, where before that velocity was defined by distance / time. Probability is still defined successes/trails, or s/t. The human mind was able to get its mind around velocity as something that existed in itself, something that existed at in instant. (this instant, my speed is 55 mph) The next trick is to get our heads around probability existing at an instant, so you can get rid of the s/t model that depends on finite t.

[lob1]

6. I don't even know why I had tacos for lunch.

[cyberpj]

10. LOL! Dr. Sheldon Cooper is one happy theoretical physicist today!

I do believe this is one his favorite theories.

BAZINGA!

[DetlefK]

11. Bull***t. You don't need a multiverse to solve that conondrum.

You just need a single universe where expansion never stops (just like ours). Time never ends and that's that.

[cstanleytech]

12. Or the universe is one giant Möbius strip and just renews itself so no real

ending because there was no beginning.
Now excuse me while i get some ibuprofen as have a headache starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending/starting/ending..........................................