I heard a podcast this week that blew my mind. With a finite number of types of things - quarks, protons, whatever - in an infinite universe, eventually the universe will have to repeat combinations of these types of things. And it will have to do so an infinite amount of times.
This is how physics and mathematics professor Brian Greene puts it on Radiolab. Imagine Imelda Marcos has thousands of floral print blouses, thousands of pairs of shoes, thousands of linen jackets, etc. Huge numbers, but finite numbers. She won’t go buy more items of clothing, and she never wants to wear the same outfit twice. Given an infinite number of days of her going to her closet to pick out an outfit, she will eventually have to repeat. And eventually she will have to repeat every outfit an infinite amount of times.
According to Brian Greene, what this means is that in our infinite universe - and the current thinking is that it is infinite - there are an infinite amount of mes out there typing exactly what I’m typing. And moreover there are an infinite amount of mes out there that are typing exactly what I’m typing, but with socks on. And moreover there are an infinite amount of mes out there that are wearing socks, but typing something brilliant. And moreover there are an infinite amount of mes out there that are wearing socks, typing something brilliant, and living in a palatial estate with a strapping cabana boy.
You go, me.
face | 15-Aug-08 at 11:09 am | Permalink
It gave you infinite hope didn’t it? I know it did for me (except that I can never trust people over 50 to pronounce “vegan” correctly).
MagnusFromBerlin | 15-Aug-08 at 11:15 am | Permalink
there is an infinite number of me that have just left a comment here, But where are they? There will also be an infinite number of me leaving a comment here in ten minutes, but I will not be among those. Let’s see how eloquent they are.
alex | 15-Aug-08 at 12:17 pm | Permalink
Is it like ray gun? Or like “V is for victory” gun?
PulpAffliction | 15-Aug-08 at 1:30 pm | Permalink
I actually listened to that episode of Radiolab last night (an infinite number of times, apparently) as I was falling asleep.
Not sure I subscribe to the multi-verse theory, but there’s no denying how interesting it is!
alex | 15-Aug-08 at 4:46 pm | Permalink
I believe in it all: swiss-cheese universes, infinite mes, everything. I just love it all. It gives me a boner.
crumpet | 15-Aug-08 at 11:15 pm | Permalink
I haven’t read the blog post or listened to the podcast yet, but just had to say that when I read the title, I squeed silently and thought “I LOVE PHYSICS TOO!!!”
I wish I’d studied it in high school. But maybe it’s better that I didn’t.
alex | 16-Aug-08 at 7:32 am | Permalink
Crump, I think about you whenever someone talks about “string theory.”
crumpet | 16-Aug-08 at 4:41 pm | Permalink
Is that because of my yarn addiction?
crumpet | 19-Aug-08 at 3:12 am | Permalink
@face
Listened to the podcast yesterday. WTF is up with the vegan pronunciation thing??? How do so many people get it wrong so often???
Vegan. Rhymes with tree-gan. Not hard.