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[Randall Octagonapus]

Ok so I was watching a show about the universe the other day. They were talking about how the universe goes on forever, they said that since it goes on forever that there is an exact replica of earth somewhere out there. Due to my obsesion with this game instead of freaking out that there could be an exact replica of me out there I started thinking that there odds are there is a planet that exactly replicates dwarf fortress.

that would be freaky

[Kishmond]

Dwarf Fortress violates several laws of physics, but maybe in another dimension it exists.

Actually, it already exists. In the same way that Middle-Earth and the Discworld exist, Dwarf Fortress exists because its users have attached meaning to it.

[LordNagash]

The theory is that in an infinite universe, everything that is possible (i.e. has a probability greater than 0) has to happen somewhere, because.. well, infinity.

So yeah as Kishmond said, it can't exist exactly as the game is due to not being able to fit a million stones in one square, but the whole dwarves/elves/goblins/kobolds/etc thing should exist somewhere if this theory is true (which is debatable)

[NightWatchman]

The theory is that in an infinite universe, everything that is possible (i.e. has a probability greater than 0) has to happen somewhere, because.. well, infinity.

So yeah as Kishmond said, it can't exist exactly as the game is due to not being able to fit a million stones in one square, but the whole dwarves/elves/goblins/kobolds/etc thing should exist somewhere if this theory is true (which is debatable)

Read Forever War and Forever Free, by John Haldeman.

The end of Forever Free, I think, basically screws up our entire concept of life.

Without spoiling it, it basically implies these hardcoded laws of physics, the rules which conduct how the universe acts, are just as changeable and malleable than a lump of clay. Imagine if Pi was exactly 3, or Sound travelled 12 miles faster?

[G-Flex]

Ok so I was watching a show about the universe the other day. They were talking about how the universe goes on forever, they said that since it goes on forever that there is an exact replica of earth somewhere out there.

... How old is that show? I think you're either misrepresenting something or they were, because the universe having infinite size doesn't mean there's an infinite amount of stuff in it. In fact, there almost certainly isn't.

[Neonivek]

There is a term for something that is infinite but not meaningfully so.

I just cannot remember what the term was.

[Sizik]

Imagine if Pi was exactly 3, or Sound travelled 12 miles faster?

Pi can't be three, as it is defined to be the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle in a Euclidean (flat) plane.

The speed of sound is dependent on the medium in which it travels. For example,

[it travels] about 4.3 times faster in water than in air at 20 degrees Celsius.

[PMantix]

There are some laws that transcend our reality based on logic alone.

The inner angles of a triangle must always add up to 180 by definition, for example.

[Neonivek]

The inner angles of a triangle must always add up to 180 by definition, for example

That is only because it is a requirement to even be a triangle.

A three sided shape that adds up to 180 degrees (because a line is being folded twice and connected) is a triangle.

[Soadreqm]

According to our friend Google search, the universe has a mass of somewhere between 10^53kg and 10^60kg. Not exactly an accurate estimate, the difference between those two numbers is approximately 10^60, but it's not exactly easy to measure so I guess that can be forgiven.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

theoretically the universe is infinite, it has infinite space, and infinite time...that doesn't implie that it has infinite planets or infinite matter

and also, everithing that is not impossible, happens, if it doesn't happen it is because it was absolutelly impossible, probabilities are just a quantification of our ignorance, they are only on our mind, in the universe it is 0 or 1

[Moose Fisher]

This isn't mine, but I figured I'd post it up while we're on the topic.

You'll know what this is from the subtle hints.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Catacombs, yes.

Initial surveys had classified this as a barren world - sulphurous atmosphere, signs of heavy vulcanism in the planet's past, no life-signs detected on the surface apart from a few resilient algae in the steaming mineral sludge that comprised the shallow oceans.

It was a prospecting mission found them - boring through the old long-cooled lava flows in search of any minerals worth extracting, when one of their core samplers broke through into a vast cavity over a hundred metres below the surface. They tried again a little way away - except this time rather than breaking through, the sampler brought up... artifacts. Or fragments of artifacts, at least. Carved and worked stone, metal and glass.

After that they brought in the xenoarchaeologists, did some deep-level scanning, and discovered a whole network of cavities under there - not the mindless formations of erosion and subsidence, but structures - corridors, hallways, rooms and chambers laid out with orderly deliberation, carved into the bedrock itself. Investigation of other likely-looking sites brought back similar results. Imagine Pompeii or Herculaneum, but engulfing New York, London, Beijing and Rio de Janeiro all at once.

An entire civilisation, buried under hundreds of metres of solidified lava and volcanic ash.

At first we thought it might be some kind of mass-eruption, some tectonic disaster that had immolated and buried the entire planetary surface. That the populace had sought refuge in subterranean cities implied that perhaps they'd seen it coming, had hastily carved out these shelters and planned to wait out the cataclysm, so they had seismologists, vulcanologists, geologists, experts on planetary geophysics come and find out what happened - and whether it could happen again. So they started looking at faultlines and the old cindercones of the world's volcanoes, and the xenoarchaeologists sent a team into the ruins to start exploring and cataloguing.

It wasn't long before the geo-whatevers reported back their preliminary findings, and that got people paying attention. Turns out that there were signs of construction at the volcanoes, too - enormous shafts bored deep into the crust, lined with machinery constructed on a monumental scale.

Consulting with one of the dig's engineers, their best guess was that it was a system of siphons and pumps designed to draw magma from deep down and pour it out onto the surface in vast quantities. They'd deliberately drowned their world in molten rock. Why? God knows. Maybe it was an act of war. Maybe there was some threat on the surface, something they feared so greatly that they would willingly burn their world to destroy it.

It was around the same time that the archaeologists returned from the depths, and their report was even more unsettling. These creatures had a sophisticated culture, and their skill in crafting was unparalleled - you can see the artifacts for yourself, there's plenty of them on display in the Colonial Museums on a dozen planets. Scenes from daily life, historic events, that kind of thing.Exquisitely-worked, sublime in their artistry - especially the pre-Cataclysm pieces. Made the caches in the Valley of the Kings look like junk-shop detritus.

The post-Cataclysm works were also in ready supply - it seems that their civilisation had survived for some time following the volcanic inundation, but the artifacts are altogether... different. Still beautifully-crafted, but the motifs depicted are unsettling, disturbing - all the more so for the attention to detail that was clearly lavished upon them.

Then there were the remains. The long-dead bodies strewn throughout the silent halls, many with marks of violence upon them, even after all this time - pinned to the wall with elegantly-wrought metal weapons, hewn apart with blades that remain sharp to this day. Some madness had seized them - despair, perhaps, at their predicament, trapped so far beneath the surface of a scorched world. Others had withdrawn to secluded chambers and simply laid down to die, alone.

And the carvings... everywhere there were carvings, on every surface. Lovingly-rendered scenes of carnage, of atrocity, every detail graven in stone and preserved for all time. We know how they died - we know in awful, terrible detail how they died, right down to the last of them slumped against a wall with engraving tools at hand, a tiny, pitiful figure carved into the rock beside it.

We know exactly how they died.

But we still don't know why.

Still, a world with crazed dwarves, elves, goblins, and other races isn't too far-fetched.  Maybe we'll have Dwarf Fortress v.2 (or even 3) by the time we discover it.

[PMantix]

The inner angles of a triangle must always add up to 180 by definition, for example

That is only because it is a requirement to even be a triangle.

A three sided shape that adds up to 180 degrees (because a line is being folded twice and connected) is a triangle.

You didn't understand my point. Allow me to reiterate.

...

NightWatchman suggested that it is possible for Pi to be equal to something other than Pi.

My point is that by definition a circle has one, and only one, relationship between the radius and circumference (Pi) of that circle. If you say that relationship is something else (Pi, as we know it, is something other than Pi), then it's not really a circle.

Like I wrote earlier, the same thing can be said of a triangle and the sum of the 3 inner angles.

So, while there are some constants which, in some other parallel universe,in theory, might have some other value..  I am suggesting that examples like those above can't change.

[Sindayven]

If you believe in the theory that the universe is in an infinite cycle of Big Bangs and Big Crunches, then it stands to reason that anything that can happen has not only happened, but has happened infinite times. The creation of the planet, the evolution of your species, even your own birth, life and death have happened an infinite amount of times throughout the universe's eternal existence. You are not the only one who has been you, and you will not be the last.

I should be a motivational speaker.

[ArkDelgato]

If you believe in the theory that the universe is in an infinite cycle of Big Bangs and Big Crunches, then it stands to reason that anything that can happen has not only happened, but has happened infinite times. The creation of the planet, the evolution of your species, even your own birth, life and death have happened an infinite amount of times throughout the universe's eternal existence. You are not the only one who has been you, and you will not be the last.

I should be a motivational speaker.

If someone finds out how to retain memories from all their past re-livings, they would be undisputed king of everything.

Maybe that's what prophets are. If Nostradamus believes that the world is going to end in 1123, that's because he REMEMBERS that happening before, but due to some random event not happening (Asteroid a doesn't become 22 degrees hotter) it doesn't kill us all.

Damn all this theoretical-astro-phisicry-magic is hard to grasp and so fun to guess at.