[extropy-chat] two-envelope paradox

[scerir]

http://jamaica.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/papers/stpete.html
http://viadrina.euv-frankfurt-o.de/~vwlmikro/veroeffentlichungen/bolle/parad
ox.pdf.

It seems that people wrote a lot about that two-envelope (or
exchange-envelope) paradox (or paradoxa, since there are more
than one). It seems, also, there is a sort of symmetry between
the two envelopes and, in this case, the supposed symmetry
forbids (among many other boring factors) any meaningful choice
(to swap, or not to swap). Real undecidability?
I do not know. But I did not find, reading the above papers, in few
seconds, any suggestion about a possible "entanglement"
between the two envelopes. Not a physical or a quantum "entanglement"
of course, since the "entanglement" is mainly a topological situation,
described by knots, braids, Borromean and Knopf rings, depending
on the specific "entanglement". Now, if the above has some sense,
which is difficult to realize, since here is very late now,
the point is that it is meaningless to assert that two envelopes
are "entangled" without specifying in which specific state they
are "entangled" (just as it is meaningless to assert that a
quantum system is in a pure state without specifying that state).
My guess is that - if those envelopes are "entangled" - after
we have specified the specific "entangled" state, many of those
paradoxa vanish.
s.


An example of *physical* entanglement (and related non-separability)
in the classical domain is paper n. 11 in this page.
http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/aerts/publications/chronological.html