[extropy-chat] HISTORY: Solved & Unsolved Riddles

JDP jacques at dtext.com
Sat Nov 8 18:00:37 UTC 2003


Eliezer S. Yudkowsky a écrit (8.11.2003/09:02) :
> 
> Samantha Atkins wrote:
> 
> >>>9) Why is there something rather than nothing?
> > 
> > Because you are here to ask. 
> 
> If I ask "Why are my pants on fire?" it probably means that my pants are 
> on fire, since, after all, if my pants were not on fire I would not be 
> asking the question.  But this does not answer the question of *why* my 
> pants are on fire.

Note to audience, especially British: please abstain from Freudian
interpretation of this example and focus instead on Eliezer's
philosophical point :-)

Jacques




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