• Barbarian@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      While integers are infinite, humans are not. Eventually the entire population of the earth would be on the tracks and nobody to flip the switch.

          • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            Do they? There’s broad consensus on the size of the observable part, but what’s beyond that is surely more speculation than science.

            • rammer@sopuli.xyz
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              1 year ago

              Based on observations it seems that the universe curves in on itself. And is thus finite.

              • primbin@lemmy.one
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                1 year ago

                I’m pretty the curvature of the universe has actually been measured to be very close to 0, within margin of error, which would suggest an infinite universe. (It doesn’t prove it by any means, though. The curvature could just too small to measure.)

                However, the observable universe is indeed finite, due to the speed of light being finite.

      • AndyGHK@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        The entire population of the earth is already on the tracks with nobody to flip the switch, brother.

        lights cigar

      • Uriel-238@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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        1 year ago

        It depends on if we develop the capacity to colonize off world, and the rate at which each test occurs. Even a one-lever-a-second rate would be out grown by the current population rate, and yet some limiters to population are catching up to us. So long as we can keep the population growth rate high (which involves securing food and habitat for the people) we can outrun the trolley into the forseeable future.

      • float@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        Until you get to that one person that would like to end mankind way down the line.

        • Uriel-238@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          It’s curious how they’re selected. During the nuclear age we’ve had nukes in the hands of fanatics who hated the enemy, who were able to comprehend the gravity of their responsibility enough that not once did a nuclear tipped weapon get launched in error or against orders… or at all.

          We’re closing on eighty years without an atomic war. Not a small accomplishment. It’s one of the few things that gives me hope for humanity.

      • catacomb@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        If we can travel faster than the trolley, we could adjust all switches with one person who continues to travel to the next junction before the trolley arrives!