[ExI] tumbling pyramids again

spike spike66 at att.net
Thu Feb 16 23:42:49 UTC 2017



-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf
Of BillK
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2017 2:36 PM
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Subject: Re: [ExI] tumbling pyramids again

On 16 February 2017 at 19:13, spike wrote:
>>... Hi BillK, thanks.  ... Please sir, what do you calculate or estimate
for h?
>


>...The answer is yes, but.......

>...This problem is mentioned at the foot of this page -
http://www.mathpuzzle.com/Fairdice.htm


>...To quote the relevant paragraph:
Can a non-isohedral fair die exist?  Consider a pyramid made from 4
isosceles triangles and a square.  If the pyramid is short and fat, the
square face will be landed upon more than a fifth of the time.  If the
pyramid is tall and thin the square face will be landed upon less than a
fifth of the time.  Is there a height where the square face will be landed
upon exactly one fifth of the time??? Yes, for a given set of conditions.
If you knew the height, force, elasticity, and throwing method, you could
find the right height.  However, once the conditions changed, the die would
no longer be fair.
--------

>...I think he is saying that if you made your 1.58 die, then people would
quickly find tricky ways of throwing the die so that they could change the
odds.

>...BillK
_______________________________________________


Hi BillK, note the next sentence right after the part you quoted:

...(NOTE:  I have a strong argument for this, but no proof.)...

There ya have it, the thing that might have caused the Big Bang to start
with.  The pre-Big Bang Sims concluded they have strong arguments but no
proof.  This whole notion exonerates the Old Ones.  In that whole Sim World
scenario, those who wrote us would hafta be cruel indeed to make simulated
beings that suffer as we do.  They could have simulated a universe with less
suffering and death.  But imagine they were sims themselves, arguing about
what would happen if matter and energy existed.  Perhaps they ended up with
the conclusion that a matter/energy universe would need to be created to try
it. Then they aren't really cruel, since they are just sims settling a
gentle-sims bet.  They don't know what is suffering, being digital
mathematical models.  Kind of fun way to think of it, ja?

OK, I am arguing that this tumbling pyramid question might be a case where
we can come up with guesses on h to make square-down = .2, but in the end we
must admit we will just have to make some and try it.  We might find it is
material-dependent, but we don't know.

spike 





More information about the extropy-chat mailing list