"If future studies verify these conclusions,
the implications are staggering, for who can claim to
comprehend infinity and eternity?
"We humans, for instance, often believe ourselves
unique. But in an infinite setting, nothing is
unique. Nature has, or will have, ample opportunities
to attempt every experiment innumerable times. It
follows that somewhere, another planet exists identical
to Earth, where at this instant someone identical to
yourself is reading these identical words. In addition,
someone else, who differs only in, say, color of
clothing, is engaged likewise.
"In fact, every conceivable variation (and some
inconceivable ones as well) must exist. Everything
supplying majesty and grandeur to our setting -- the
colors of a rainbow, the innocence of a child, the
flight of a hummingbird, the fragrance of a rose,
everything -- is repeated ad infinitum throughout
the Universe.
"Need we any more explicit reminder of our own
diminutive finitude?"
- George A. Seielstad, Chapter 3: "Our Moment
in Time", from Cosmic Ecology: The View from the
Outside In, May, 1982, University of California
Press, Berkeley (1983)
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/debate/debate.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980114.html
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/96/21/scibkg.html