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Old 15-November-2005, 11:50 AM
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Ken G Ken G is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grant hutchison
Ah, but if we sample at a random point in time with respect to an exponentially growing population (like lemmings or humans), then we are more than 5% likely to sample from the initial 5% of lives, simply because those lives are spread over a long time period.
But why are you discussing sampling in time? We are sampling a life, under the assumption that all lives are equally likely to be sampled. Other constructions are certainly possible, such as, always selecting the first life! But I agree with your main point, that the Carter approach assumes the life we lead is a randomly sampled life from all of human lives, equally weighted. Again, that is what you would assume in the lack of all information about what makes you, you.
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