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Category Archives: Paradoxes
Mind game …
… or the illusion of motion (via Cliff Pickover)
Posted in Art, Paradoxes
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“Don’t keep a schedule”
Marc Andresseen shares his quirky ideas for becoming a hyper-productive machine here. (We stumbled upon these guidelines via Tyler Cowen, the most hyper-productive blogger, reader, scholar bar none.) Some of Andresseen’s ideas make sense and are easy to implement–like “do … Continue reading
Posted in Paradoxes
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Questions regarding the 13th Amendment
Happy Anniversary! On this day 150 years ago, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified by the requisite number of U.S. States, including most (but not all) of the southern States that had left the Union and joined the rebel and pro-slavery … Continue reading
Posted in History, Law, Paradoxes
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Voting paradox (federal courts edition)
Independent scholar David Post (via the Volokh Conspiracy) recently brought the following “wild voting paradox” to our attention. In general, appeals at the federal level are decided by a panel consisting of three judges. Now, let’s imagine a case involving … Continue reading
A solution to Newcomb’s problem
Although “it’s not entirely clear that [Newcomb’s paradox] is well-posed” (see video at 8:11), Professor NJ Wildberger presents an elegant mathematical solution to this probabilistic problem in the video above.
“Visualizing Probabilistic Proof”
Our latest theoretical paper (“Visualizing Probabilistic Proof” — click on the image above to see our abstract) has just been published in volume 7 of the Wash U Jurisprudence Review, along with an interesting Note by Krista C. McCormack titled “Ethos, Pathos, and … Continue reading
Posted in Bayesian Reasoning, Law, Paradoxes
Tagged Blue Bus Problem, Proof Paradoxes
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Borgesian infinite regress
“On some shelf in some hexagon [within the Library of Babel], it was argued, there must exist a book that is the cipher and perfect compendium of all other books *** How was one to locate the idolized secret hexagon … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Logical Fallacies, Paradoxes
Tagged Jorge Luis Borges, The Library of Babel
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The Kobayashi Maru
“No one passes this test.” Here is more, from Wikipedia: The Kobayashi Maru is a test in the fictional Star Trek universe. It is a Starfleet training exercise designed to test the character of cadets in the command track at Starfleet Academy … The notional primary goal of the exercise … Continue reading
The Wikipedia Paradox
According to Wikipedia (citations omitted): “Ignore All Rules” is a “favorite” rule of the English-language open content encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Its formulation is generally (emphasis in original), “If a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Wikipedia, ignore it.” Wikipedia has … Continue reading
prior probability 