B Does a Probabilistic Multiverse Invalidate the Value of Scientific Inquiry?

[Zehpyr]

TL;DR

Does science even matter if everything that can happen, does happen in some universe? Is what we learn just true for this universe, and meaningless everywhere else?

If the universe is fundamentally probabilistic, and all possible outcomes are realized in some branch of the multiverse, does that invalidate the concept of scientific inquiry? If knowledge is merely a description of one particular branch of reality, does it have any inherent value?

 

[Nugatory]

You are starting from the premise that there is such a thing as a "multiverse". Maybe there is, maybe there isn't, but nothing in our current understanding of physics would be affected either way. Thus, speculation about the possibility is out of scope for this forum.

You may be confusing the multiverse notion with the "multi-world interpretation" (MWI) of quantum mechanics. That's something different - the confusion comes about because the word "world" in that context doesn't mean what it sounds like.

Nonetheless, in our current understanding of physics the universe is fundamentally probabilistic. This does not, however, invalidate the concept of scientific inquiry, it just requires the use of statistical methods to completely understand what is going on. For an example... the behavior of air molecules is completely random, yet we can predict with near-perfect accuracy the behavior of large crowds of them.

 

[Dale]

does that invalidate the concept of scientific inquiry?

Why would it? Which specific step of the scientific method do you think is invalidated in a probabilistic universe?