[ExI] paradox perhaps

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: spike at rainier66.com <spike at rainier66.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, 14 September, 2022 4:27 PM
To: 'ExI chat list' <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: spike at rainier66.com
Subject: paradox perhaps

 

 

>.While climbing in the Sierras this week a fun thought experiment occurred
to me.If you started to leave, but then reconsidered, turned back, signed
the book, would your estimate of frequency of visit revert to 10 days?...

 

spike

 

 

 

So here's the follow-on question.

 

You rig up a device to reset to zero if someone visits the peak.  Never mind
log box, just a motion detector which will reset to zero if a person comes
to the peak.  Tomorrow it will read 1 if no one comes, 2 the day after, etc.

 

Now imagine the device can send its data to a remote site and you have
sensors on all the local peaks, telling you how long since the last visit.

 

You could go up to the peak, read the device, which says 10 days, before it
resets to zero from your being there.  Or you could look up the sensor on
the remote site and see that a particular sensor reads 10 days, but of
course it would not reset because you are not there physically to read the
device.

 

In the first instance, you might estimate the span between visits at about
10 days, or about 36 visits a year, but in the second case, you might
estimate about 20 days between visits to the peak, since it has already been
10 days and no one is around.  So. your physical presence has messed up the
observation.  But is it that the device enabled you to get the data without
being present, so the 20 day estimate is messed up?

 

 

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