The delusional part was a reference to a comment in the op about deluded worlds, where empiricism isn’t valid regardless of all else. Imagine, for example, a universe in which you’re the only person, living an elaborate delusion that you’re actually interacting with other minds. The entire argument collapses in meaninglessness.
And a quick Google search suggests currently living humans only constitute around 10% of all human beings which have ever lived, so there’s a 90% chance that any given believer is incorrect. At what point it becomes correct depends on population dynamics which I hesitate to forecast into the future (except that it’s going to remain valid for at least the next century, provided the birth rate doesn’t rise considerably).
But none of this gives you any additional information about whether or not doomsday is in fact correct—even if it were accurate about the population, and it told you that most people who believe in doomsday are correct, it doesn’t give you any information about whether or not you personally are correct. There’s no new information contained there to update your existing knowledge upon.
The delusional part was a reference to a comment in the op about deluded worlds, where empiricism isn’t valid regardless of all else. Imagine, for example, a universe in which you’re the only person, living an elaborate delusion that you’re actually interacting with other minds. The entire argument collapses in meaninglessness.
And a quick Google search suggests currently living humans only constitute around 10% of all human beings which have ever lived, so there’s a 90% chance that any given believer is incorrect. At what point it becomes correct depends on population dynamics which I hesitate to forecast into the future (except that it’s going to remain valid for at least the next century, provided the birth rate doesn’t rise considerably).
But none of this gives you any additional information about whether or not doomsday is in fact correct—even if it were accurate about the population, and it told you that most people who believe in doomsday are correct, it doesn’t give you any information about whether or not you personally are correct. There’s no new information contained there to update your existing knowledge upon.