RE: A Poll On Abiogenesis (Spontaneous Generation)

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Sun, 04 Oct 1998 07:59:07 -0500

At 02:19 PM 10/3/98 -0700, Pim van Meurs wrote:
>Glenn: <<Since I haven't seen any observational evidence for alternative
universes
>(and by definition can't), I think the assumption I rest my probability
>upon is actually pretty good.>>
>
>Of course if our universe had not supported 'life' we would not have been
here. But I am not necessarily talking about alternate universes in
parallel but how many universes could have supported life in some form ?
>Perhaps all of them ? Just the form of life would have changed ? And yet
in each universe 'life' would marvel at how well the universe made it
possible for them to exist.

At this time I might take a Wittgensteinian approach. (if anyone doesn't
know who Wittgenstein was ask a philosopher). Is the question a proper
question? How does one calculate even the probability of alternative
constructions allowing alternative life forms when we don't even know all
the details of our own life forms. We can calculate the probability of
alternative constructions supporting OUR life forms (I make a stab in
Foundation Fall and Flood). But define the living system in a universe
with a gravitational constant twice ours.
glenn

Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm