Reference Classes
One of the major areas of Doomsday Argument debate is the reference class from which n is drawn, and of which N is the ultimate size. The 'standard' Doomsday Argument hypothesis doesn't spend very much time on this point, and simply says that the reference class is the number of 'humans'. Given that you are human, the Copernican principle could be applied to ask if you were born unusually early, but the grouping of 'human' has been widely challenged on practical and philosophical grounds. Nick Bostrom has argued that consciousness is (part of) the discriminator between what is in and what is out of the reference class, and that extraterrestrial intelligences might affect the calculation dramatically.
The following sub-sections relate to different suggested reference classes, each of which has had the standard Doomsday Argument applied to it.
Read more about this topic: Doomsday Argument
Famous quotes containing the words reference and/or classes:
“If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.”
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965)
“Solidity, caution, integrity, efficiency. Lack of imagination, hypocrisy. These qualities characterize the middle classes in every country, but in England they are national characteristics.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)