RE: A New Paradox

Richard Brodie (RBrodie@brodietech.com)
Wed, 11 Dec 1996 12:03:57 -0800


Eleizer wrote:

>The paradox goes like this. Omega, customarily spoken of as "a
>superbeing from another planet" but here a Power or superintelligence,
>arrives on Earth and performs an experiment on humans.
>...
>Consider on one hand that fifty people took only box B and got a
>million
>dollars, while fifty people took both boxes and got a measly thousand.
>The cause and effect seem fairly straightforward.

To me, the interesting part of this puzzle is that people are so quick
to believe that such a super-powered bring could exist despite any
experimental evidence in the history of the study of "psychic"
phenomena. The puzzle starts by asking us to assume the existence of an
incredible being. Then why are we surprised when the conclusion violates
our rock-solid model of causality?
>
>Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com +1.206.688.8600
>CEO, Brodie Technology Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA, USA
>http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
>Do you know what a "meme" is?
>http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
>