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On Infinity

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Author Topic:   On Infinity
tudwell
Member (Idle past 5997 days)
Posts: 172
From: KCMO
Joined: 08-20-2006

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Message 1 of 2 (389883)
03-16-2007 12:36 PM

I was recently reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, and in it I found the following passage:
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Douglas Adams writes:
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It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds.
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Now let's assume for the sake of argument that the first two sentences are correct. Is the conclusion Adams draws from these two statements correct?
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For simplicity, let's say there is only one uninhabited planet. That follows the premises, right? So all but one of the infinite worlds in the universe are inhabited. My question is: Is the number of inhabited worlds finite or infinite?
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It seems to me it must be infinite. If it's a finite number, then adding the one uninhabited planet to find the total number of planets would render a finite number, which is impossible given the premise of an infinite number of worlds.
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So who's right? Me or Douglas Adams?
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Big Bang and Cosmology? Coffee House? Somewhere else?
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Message 2 of 2 (390195)
03-19-2007 10:09 AM

Thread copied to the On Infinity thread in the Big Bang and Cosmology forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.
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