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[Itnetlolor]

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

Speaking of "The Universe" (probably what you watched); tonight's episode features something that I found pretty interesting/funny.

Ever hear of brown dwarfs? Apparently it turns out they're not stars, but they're giant planets that rain magma. My response in watching that: "Dwarfy."

[Arkose]

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.

I don't think that's actually by definition, at least the more general definition of a triangle as a polygon defined by three distinctly-positioned non-colinear vertices. The inner angles of triangles adding up to 180 degrees holds in Euclidean spaces, but not necessarily in geometries where the distance between parallel lines is not constrained to remain constant everywhere; examples include the 2D space on the surface of a 3D sphere, or the 4D spacetime of special relativity.

...but those nitpicks don't really address the underlying point of your statement, which is basically sound. 

[Yolan]

Even if the universe is 'infinite', it doesn't mean that somewhere out there there is a planet where the oceans are chocolate and the people are all gingerbread men. That's just a mistaken understanding of probability.

Think of it like this: Infinity times a chance of 0 = ?

[Sabre_Justice]

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.

Bloody Stupid Johnson tried that. It didn't end well.

[LordNagash]

Even if the universe is 'infinite', it doesn't mean that somewhere out there there is a planet where the oceans are chocolate and the people are all gingerbread men. That's just a mistaken understanding of probability.

Think of it like this: Infinity times a chance of 0 = ?

That's why I said it had to have a probability greater than zero

[Nordic dorf]

so, if we are all so sure the universe is not infinite, whats at the end?

[zwei]

You can draw circle on spheric surface, based on sphere radius, PI can equal to pretty much anything greater than 3.14 etc etc.

All you need is curved spacetime, and since our spacetime IS by default curved, 'real' circles never have your preciously calculated pi. No do angles any real triangle add to 180 degress.

[jseah]

Clarification then:

Under Euclidean geometry and standard postulates of mathematics, the value of pi as defined by the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it's diameter is 3.14...

This has been proven to only have exactly one possible value given the set of postulates.  It's a logical deduction that can't be overturned. 

[Deon]

While I am not sure about the infinity of the universe, I am pretty sure that yackety-yack has no limits.

P.S. What I want to tell, is that while a common "forum" waffling may create a few non-existant worlds, it won't change the fact about us knowing nothing about it.

[white_wolf]

wow.......... i mean reallly, WOW...... ur blowin my mind here.......

[RavingManiac]

Note that the chances of a dwarf fortress-like world existing in a universe with finite mass(this one) for no reason other that lolrandom are roughly equivalent to the chances of the oceans turning into margarine, or your pet dog sprouting tentacles and flying into space propelled by a stream of fairy dust.

[zwei]

Clarification then:

Under Euclidean geometry and standard postulates of mathematics, the value of pi as defined by the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it's diameter is 3.14...

This has been proven to only have exactly one possible value given the set of postulates.  It's a logical deduction that can't be overturned. 

The reall universe is, not Euclidean. For your practical applications, it is pretty damn close to it and euclidean geometry is best model we have to work in, but it is just ideal model.

[Deon]

Note that the chances of a dwarf fortress-like world existing in a universe with finite mass(this one) for no reason other that lolrandom are roughly equivalent to the chances of the oceans turning into margarine, or your pet dog sprouting tentacles and flying into space propelled by a stream of fairy dust.

Or the Toady's kitteh to finish DF 1.0 by random jumping on the keyboard while Toady sleeps.

[kurokikaze]

I suppose that if Dwarf Fortress exists as concept and is functioning, and we can refer to it as a "world", then DF exists as a world. There is no real difference between this world's placement: your desktop machine or a galaxy far, far away - you cannot get there anyway.

[Sowelu]

Dudes.  Seriously.  Go read some Lovecraft and stop harshing our sci-fi mellow.  Like half of every Lovecraft story ever involved angles that JUST. WEREN'T. RIGHT.  Because it's, you know, scary.  And I've seen sci-fi stories before that involve pi being damn weird in Wrong patches of space.  Even a gradient on the value of pi.

I've always wanted to try and make some computer simulation of what wrong space would look like.  It's not THAT hard to imagine...like, let's say you have a little shed in a field in the middle of a patch of wrong space.  Now cut out a chunk of the circle, including a chunk of the shed and make it portalicious so that if you look at where the chunk was cut out, you see through the other side of the chunk.  You could have a shed with only three walls, each ninety degrees, but you have to walk 360 degrees around it in real-space to get back where you started.  It'll seem like the barn is almost rotating along with you, because it turns at a lower speed than everything else in your reference frame...  Of course, it's tricky to make the ground in wrong space match up with the ground in real space.

But if you could pull that off in a game, and keep it subtle--like, only snipping out 1/16th of a circle?  Suddenly the player knows that SOMETHING is wrong, but it's really, really hard to pin down exactly what it is.  Like, that tower off in the distance, it's almost like it's watching you...it seems to be facing you a little bit more than it should...Is it turning?  Are all the mountains turning around you?


Uhh, that was pretty off-topic.  But the observable universe is not infinite by any stretch of the imagination.  If you start looking into other weird things like the concept of a holographic universe, or...whatever the latest buzzwords are, then sure, maybe we live in a multiverse where everything of a nonzero probability is possible and therefore guaranteed.  Me, I find that horrifying...and I think that the Fermi paradox is on my side when I say that none of those infinite possibilities have any way of touching us here on earth, or they already would have.