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From: karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn)
Newsgroups: net.astro,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Quantum Universe
Message-ID: <474@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Aug-85 14:12:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: petrus.474
Posted: Tue Aug 20 14:12:32 1985
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Xref: watmath net.astro:937 net.sf-lovers:9675

> 	"Page estimates that the chances of 'The Creator sticking
> 	 in a pin' and pulling out just this combination of qualities
> 	 that makes such a unique universe are way beyond
> 	 astronomical, 1 in (10,000,000,000)^124."

There's an amusing anecdote along these lines. A certain mathematician
who had achieved a fair reputation for his understanding of probability
and gambling was getting a lot of phone calls from card players who were
asking him the odds for various hands they had drawn. He got so fed up
with these annoyances that when one night someone called him and asked "I
just drew a royal straight flush! What were the odds on my doing this?",
he replied "exactly the same as any other hand", and hung up the phone.

He was right, of course.

Phil