Secular Reincarnation
Lately I've been thinking about Thomas Huxley's idea of infinite monkeys on infinite typewriters for an infinite amount of time. As the theory goes, they'd eventually recreate Shakespeare's works in their entirety simply due to random hitting of the keys. Don't argue this point, it's true. In fact, they'd not only recreate Shakespeare's works once, but would do so an infinite number of times. The same goes for every other literary work, supposing that they phonetically write out other scripts (like oriental, Cyrillic, Sanskrit, etc.)) and ignore accents that aren't available.
An easier way to wrap your head around this problem is to envision a keyboard that has pebbles being dropped on it, hitting only one key at a time and no others. Given that each key has an equally probably chance of being struck, it will produce every work if left doing this processes for unlimited time. The reason I find this example to be clearer is because most people seem to think the monkeys would have some sort of intent behind their actions, as if they're actually trying to recreate Shakespeare or whatever. This isn't the case - they're simply mashing keys and accidentally making novels.
Expanding from this, I realized that secular reincarnation is capable of happening. It is entirely possible that one or all of three things are infinite: time, space, and/or alternate dimensions. As long as one of these is unlimited, it's quite possible that when we die, our consciousness in its exact form could re-manifest somewhere else. This pulls a lot of things into question, of course. Where does consciousness rest? Is it possible to transmit it? Even if something is structurally identical, will you, as you are now, be part of it? What about a/the soul? Too many questions, really. But, it is promising for any non-religious person who's despairing at the afterlife.
To clarify where I'm coming from, probability theory states that nothing has a 0% chance of happening (aka everything has a chance greater than 0). Even if it's infinitesimally small, it will express itself somewhere in an unlimited number of trials. The real mindfuck here is if you consider omnipresent beings. If every possible combination of things must happen, then somewhere an omnipresent god must exist, and in another place it must not, which violates the first one's power. This clearly demonstrates that there is a limit to the probability curve in practice - we don't have gods walking among us and intervening, as some interventionist religions would believe.
Thus, we should refine the statement to be:
In an infinite universe, anything that is possible must happen.
Note: Do not attempt to actually create the monkey's on typewriters. Only a fucking idiot would expect to see similar results when comparing an infinite sample and an extremely small, finite sample.
No, an infinite number of possibilities does not necessarily mean every possibility... your basic premise is flawed.
Elaborate.
i like what dividedyoufall said.
i still can't believe that monkeys would recreate shakespeare's works an infinite amount of times, the words, the sequence of words, the dialogue... it's not possible! that means there were pages upon pages of words that were correctly typed in the same order.
Now it's my turn to point out your flaw.
it is possible and it's inevitable. I still hold that over an infinite time line, everything will most likely be expressed. I suppose if we look at what the odds are of something not happening in an infinite time line.. but that'd be infinitesimally smaller than the probability that it would. But as I said, anything's possible in infinite, so who knows. I need to ask a probability expert about this.
But to address yours, it is quite possible. It's relatively inevitable, really. typing a random string of letters forever will reveal every text, as it should go through every combination of letters possible, with one of those possibilities being Shakespeare's works.
What about hydroplaning when there is no water; 0%
Not everything can be drawn into a pretty little curve with asymptotes at either end.
As I said in the post, there must be limitations considering we don't have interventionist God's flying around. That, or the universe/time aren't infinite and there aren't an infinite number of parallel universes.
Also, when is there ever "no water"? There's always atmospheric humidity.
if nothing has a 0% chance of happening then there is a chance that that is wrong and if there is a chance that it is wrong over an infinite amount of time it must be wrong at some points.
i think some of your points just haven't been made clear enough for some people.
the monkeys thing is correct though. its not even worth trying to discuss without a basic knowledge of probability.
one monkey already managed to do it(Shakespeare) why couldn't another? if you look at religion you will see stories appear over and over again as if there was a main theme. in such a short amount of time even we have seen the same stories played out over and over. its hard to imagine over an infinite amount of time that the same wordings would not appear.
the biggest and most important limiting factor to discuss is whether or not time is infinite, if it was not than no matter how many trials go by there would be a chance that a possible outcome does not happen. otherwise the law of large numbers takes hold. the law of large numbers being that on average you will see events happening the % of times expected to. if you flip a coin an infinite number of times it will average to 50/50. in smaller samples we see lots of variance.
it seems dividedyoufall and luxe need to catch up on some probability as well as using the pebbles example instead of the monkeys :P.
There's no water when you say there isn't. It's a thought experiment. That being said, luxe is either that ignorant, or you just got trolled. No parts of the internets is safe..
I'm not purposely trying to be ignorant, I just don't understand the concept, that is all.
Luxe: Consciousness is simply electric impulses in the cerebral cortex area of the brain. Everyone's brain is different, so everyone has a unique consciousness. With an infinite, never-ending span of time, your exact genetic code will undeniably be rewritten no matter how many trillions of years it would take. This will cause you to be conscious again and it will repeat endlessly.
If the infinate theory holds, it brings many complications that seem inconsistant with reality. This will be hard to follow, but observe:
I propose that memory allows consciousness to seem continuos.
Without memory, we cannot be aware that we are a continuance of the person who woke up here yesterday.
In an infinate universe, the molicule reformations would be just as likely to consist of my exact body, except that I would have napolean's memory, as it was when he was 45.
This memory would be inconsistant with my continued experience. When I walked down the street, I would not be arrested or admired as europes great conquerer. I would be confused.
When you think that there must be at least 6 billion to the power of 6 billion possibile combinations of complete minds with other memories, the likely hood of this particular instance of reality ( of all the infinate recreations of this reality) being the only one where almost everyones memories are consistant with thier continued experience is virtually nill. But that is the case.
Therefore, quid pro quo, the possibility that people molicules reform, is in practice, zero.