[ExI] Do we live in a universe that allows infinite computation?

[john clark]

On Aug 14, 2011, at 2:50 PM, Stefano Vaj wrote:
"Basically, this goes as follows: since we must believe that universe is finite (otherwise we would be transferring monotheistic concepts of deity on Nature), given an unlimited amount of time any conceivable configuration of the universe
would be returning after a sufficient number of steps."
If an infinite amount of matter is not allowed why is an infinite amount of time OK? And even if I knew that the idea was true, just repeating the same thing over and over would not soften death's sting one bit, at least not for me. 
"OTOH, this idea is denied by the Second Principle of Thermodynamics"
No, the second law of thermodynamics allows massive decreases in entropy if you have infinite time, in fact it insists on it, and such things would happen an infinite number of times. Quantum mechanics is involved in assigning probabilities to things and this raises a problem for Everett's multiverse idea, how can you divide infinity by infinity and get a finite number to use as a probability? If the universes can be in any order then its hopeless, so the multiverse people try to find a physical reason for ordering the universes in one particular way, then probabilities in infinite sets make a little more sense although some say its still a little fuzzy and the controversy continues. They call this ordering a "measure".

 John K Clark 

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