[ExI] Dark Energy and Causal Cells

[Stuart LaForge]

Bill W wrote:

> The security of certainty does not belong in science -
> agreed.  However, nonscientists seek it with a vengeance.  I'd argue that
> it is the basis of most religions.  Neurotics seek it desperately so they
> can quit worrying and dithering about decisions that are anything but
> clear.  Being told about probability is the last thing a nonscientist wants
> to hear.  If you don't know for sure, then what do you know?

Good question. What do you know for sure? How certain are you of what you
will have for dinner next thursday? That your flight will be on time? How
sure are you of the date you learned to say daddy? How many hairs do you
have on your head?

If you cannot be sure of these simple things, then how can you have the
cheek to seek certainty about the universe? Your brain could not keep
track of its own atoms and you want certainty about life, death, and the
Great Expanse?

Well I have a certainty for you. For one thing, if you have faith the
universe is infinite, you can be certain that whatever you have for dinner
next thursday night, an infinite number of you, in other causal cells will
have something else.

> Stuart's explanation is fine but it's not what people want.  Certainty is
> what they want and they can't get it from science, so they go elsewhere.
> Of course they wind up delusional and irrational.
> I guess that's the best we can hope for until evolution is kicked up a
> notch with germline engineering.

Well what people want is a matter of marketing. They can have certainty
from science if they choose to truly believe the universe is infinite.
It's a form of immortality to always be alive *somewhere*.

Neurotics need not dither over minor decisions, if they truly believed in
an infinite universe, they could rest assured that whatever they chose,
they were destined to choose all along. And an infinite number of them in
other causal cells chose differently.

How much more certainty out of life could one ask?

Stuart LaForge