[extropy-chat] what is probability?

[Benjamin Goertzel]

> Setting aside the cube factory paradox for the moment,
> consider this more famous example:
>
> "Consider a fixed circle and select a chord at random.
> What is the probability that this random chord is
> longer than the side of the equilateral triangle
> inscribed in the circle?" (as given by Gillies, 2000)
>
> At least three very plausible solutions exist to this
> problem, and I think it can be shown that an infinity
> of them exist, each which gives a different answer to
> the question (depending of course on our choice of
> sample space).

All the Bertrand paradox shows is that the natural language concept
"select at random" is ambiguous, and can be disambiguated to yield
multiple meanings.

Big whoop ;-)

-- Ben G