The relationship between Lindy, Doomsday, and Copernicus is as follows:
The “Copernican Principle” is that “we” are not special. This is a generalisation of how the Earth is not special: it’s just another planet in the solar system, not the centre of the universe.
In John Gott’s famous paper on the Doomsday Argument, he appeals to the the Copernican Principle to assert “we are also not special in time”, meaning that we should expect ourselves to be in a typical point in the history of humanity.
The “most typical” point in history is exactly in the middle. Thus your best guess of the longevity of humanity is twice its current age: Lindy’s Law.
Thank you. I have corrected the mistake.
The relationship between Lindy, Doomsday, and Copernicus is as follows:
The “Copernican Principle” is that “we” are not special. This is a generalisation of how the Earth is not special: it’s just another planet in the solar system, not the centre of the universe.
In John Gott’s famous paper on the Doomsday Argument, he appeals to the the Copernican Principle to assert “we are also not special in time”, meaning that we should expect ourselves to be in a typical point in the history of humanity.
The “most typical” point in history is exactly in the middle. Thus your best guess of the longevity of humanity is twice its current age: Lindy’s Law.