Re: HUMOR: How hot is it in Hell?

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue Jul 17 2001 - 19:54:47 MDT


Mike Lorrey wrote:
>
> 2). Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase
> of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until
> Hell freezes over.
>
> So which is it?
>
> If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Therese Banyan during my
> Freshman year, "That it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with
> you," and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded
> in having sexual relations with her, then #2 cannot be true, and so
> Hell is exothermic.
>
> The student got the only A.

This story is obviously an urban legend. Ms. Therese Banyan's statement
"if I sleep with you, then there will previously have been a cold night in
hell", combined with the statement that Therese did not sleep with the
student in question, does not even prove that there have been no cold
nights in hell, much less that there will never be one.

I would have given the student a C- for extreme sloppiness at the last
minute.

-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence



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