unreality

I would say yes... but then I realized I read over the "OTHER THAN YOURSELF IF YOU SHOULD BE ONE" part. Oops. It doesn't say if you are picked or not. Silly me. So the answer is no. Cuz you could be part of the losers and not told. Your chances are the same. But does that relate to the riddle? He doesnt ask about himself, he asks about the other two people- and the answer DOES give him new information Take this example (i know it doesnt seem to directly relate... im not sure) : There are 6 people, who bet on a different number on a dice. You are #2. If they switch out the dice at the last minute with a 5-sided die, the sixth person is ruled out, and now the chances are 1-5, all equal. Your chances went from 1-in-6 to 1-in-5, right? However if you are #6 and you are never told of the die switch, you *think* you have a 1/6 chance of winning when in fact you have no chance. Are these just random shots in the dark at understanding? How does the 1:1 become 2:1? what makes alfred more special than bob? I'm confused

All of this (not just roolstar's post, the whole discussion) is assuming that the two to die were picked at random- they are picked beforehand, the guard knew which two would die and which would live. I don't think they rolled some dice to determine who would live. Whoever was making the decision would do it on a reason... based on their crime or their sentence and how much the judge (or whoever) likes Alfred, Bob and Charlie, you know what I mean. but assuming their chances of survival are equal and random then there are three scenarios, and one of these 3 MUST HAPPEN and have equal chances: * Al dies, Bob dies, Charlie lives: 1/3 * Al dies, Bob lives, Charlie dies: 1/3 * Al lives, Bob dies, Charlie dies: 1/3 But then we get confirmation from the guard that Charlie dies no matter what these are the only two options: * Al dies, Bob lives, Charlie dies: 1/2 * Al lives, Bob dies, Charlie dies: 1/2 There's no reason to weigh Bob over Al or vice versa, and one of those two MUST happen, so isn't it 1:1 chances? LIke Al said, it's him or bob. I'm probably wrong and there are many people here with more probability knowledge so I would appreciate it a lot if someone could point out the error in my reasoning

I don't think there was a Big Bang at all... it just seems like some serious bullsh*t. But dont get me wrong- I dont believe in god, or any god. I think the universe has been around forever, and always will be around forever. It just is.

I'm sorry to say you are wrong. Your impression of infinity is wrong. Yes, our universe MAY be infinite. It probably is. I'm saying "may" cuz I have no idea- nobody has any idea. But if it is, you are still wrong. Imagine this: ...000000000... An infinite number of zeroes. But there are no ones present. All zeroes. ...0202020202... Still infinite, with some more variety... still no ones. ...abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz023456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz023456789... Imagine that's the universe, lots of variety and whatnot. But no ones. Just because something is infinite it doesn't mean everything exists. *** writersblock: you are right about the conservation of mass and energy (which are the same thing, right?... well actually that's not relevant). You take both mass and energy from one time and move it to another. It still exists in the universe. No problems there *** writersblock again: I like your thinking about time as another dimension, just like space. But you're forgetting something. 0 dimensions- a single point 1 dimension (1d)- a line 2d- a circle/square/etc 3d- a sphere/cube/prism/etc 4d- time, thus both the 3 dimensions of space, AND time Assuming that this is what you're getting at, and I think it is, about Space and Time- you are thinking that Space and Time are equal in number of dimensions, and that Time is also 3 dimensions that we move around in, and that time isnt linear. Going back to your logic (assuming 4d is space and time) this isnt true- time IS linear. It's just one dimension added on. 1d is a line. Time would be linear. Go back to my post and read about the parallel universes... this works for linear time, though it could also be applied to 5d or 6d time, like you are suggesting (6d could be 3 dimensions of time, 3 dimensions of space- though there is hyperspace and superspace and what not for complex geometry, so there might even be more dimensions of space, and more of time as well, who knows), then my theory of parallel universes would still work regardless of how many dimensions in each universe. So, writersblock, I think our theories kind of work together.

Pretty bold statement!! In fact going into the future holds even more paradoxes than going into the past! Consider this: I go 3 hours into the future and see myself having a car accident. So I come back and stay at home for the next 3 hours. I successfully avoided the car accident. But how can I remember it if it didn’t happen? And if I don’t remember it, why did I stay at home then? Obviously you don't understand what going into the future entails. I am right when I say there are no paradoxes because: there are not TWO of you when you go into the future. Trust me, I have given all of this much thought. Let's say you go three hours in the future. You disappear and reappear 3 hours later- for you it seemed like the blink of an eye, but for everyone else, 3 hours passed without you present. THERE ARE NOT TWO OF YOU WHEN YOU GO INTO THE FUTURE. Let's say you are ten years old and you go fifty years into the future- you are seeing a future that had no contribution from you, since you have not aged past 10. You disappeared 50 years ago, and you reappear now, as a 10-year old, the only 'you' in the world. But if you go back and read my post on how travelling back in time can work, you will see how the present-past-future issue isn't relevant. This works even with free will, with a future that isn't defined yet. The present is where you are currently, and there is no future. Even when you go back in time, in my theory you create a new universe, and that's as far as the universe has gotten to, there is an uncertain future ahead of you in this new universe. Free will can exist. Of course I am an atheist and I believe in free will, but if you believe that everything is set until the end of time (a boring and confusing way to live, IMO) then it's all been figured out by god or buddha or whatever, and everything has already been planned out, so no paradoxes

Isnt that what you would have to do if you upgraded straight from beta to v3? Well that option seems to be closed anyway. Would down grading from beta to 2.xx lose the posts or would it be 2.xx to 3.0?

merry christmas everyone! (or hanukah or whatnot!)

Well when 3.0 comes out they HAVE to do support for that. Just uninstall 3.0.B5 and then reinstall 3.0, when it comes out

What was your favorite riddle EVER on this website? (And if you have a favorite and its NOT on this forum, PLEASE post it here when you nominate it ) Just wondering, cuz there's lots of good ones on here My favorite is probably that baby boy-or-girl one, the arguement of 1/3 or 1/2, I forget what it was called

Also, if you went back in time 1000 years and then quickly went forward to 2000, the change would be minimal- or more, depending on how much YOU change it compared to how many random stuff and free will and the complexity of brains and behavior and atomic-level stuff like weather is. It would probably still be some pretty big change, even if you were there for just a moment

Yeah I didnt come to this forum for a while, real life stuff

hehe

Time travel induces millions; no billions; of paradoxes- not just the "oh f*ck I went back in time and shot me when I was a baby" thing... anything to prevent you from going back in time, etc. It's not just that. Paradoxes just like that one (go back and kill your parents, etc) happen an uncountable billion of times at an atomic level. By moving you and your atoms and related bacteria and cells and living matter (probably not any nonliving things connected to you like clothes, tattoos, piercings, etc, that would be my guess) and all that back in time there would be millions, billions, trillions, maybe infinite, I have no idea, of paradoxes happening. And because of the butterfly effect and random things that happen at atomic levels and such- all of this assuming randomness in natures and thoughts, and free will, you going back will change the world a LOT. Voila, major paradox. However, there is one possible way that time travel can exist. 1) going forward in time creates no paradoxes and is very simple 2) going backward in time is also possible, but different. When you go back in time, you would create a new universe sprouting from the point in time that you went back to.. In this new universe, which has the same history as the mother universe up the point of the split, is now on a different path. You could kill yourself as a baby, your parents, your grandfathers, the person that invents the time travel system and 5 million other people, take over Canada and blow up Antartica and it wouldn't affect the universe that it split off from- in THAT universe, you would still go back in time to make this one. There is NO way to get back to the universe you originally came from. The only way to get into a new universe is to go back in time and create a new one. Thus at the beginning of time, there would be one (or possibly more) "strands" of universes and then it start to become a big tree, more and more universes as people go back in time. Clarification edit: the universe is created at the point that you go back to. For example, it's 2007 (soon to be 08 woot!) and I go back to year 500, the universe I am on right now splits off at year 500. The histories up to that point are equal, then they start becoming different as my time travel and random events and free will and such changes the universe- over 1500 years the year 2007 in this universe would be waay different than our current 2007. But if you went back 5 minutes, there wouldn't much time for your change to make much of a difference in the new universe you created, it would probably be mostly the same 5 minutes later. No paradoxes- assuming the time travel is actually possible.

Try the phpbb website: http://www.phpbb.com/ also this link: http://www.phpbb.com/support/ If i have some time I could try to help you out, not now though

lol my answer seems to have stoked some discussion Merry Christmas everyone! (or whatever you celebrate!)

Sorry- I guess I just assumed there was a nil set item or whatever it's called... like a $0 coupon by the absence of a coupon

This is actually easily answered IMO Assuming you know evolution (which is just that fittest are the ones that survive over time) to be a generally correct theory, then it's easy. (It's easy for other things too like creatonist, as writersblock showed, lol) It's easy because a chicken can't be defined. Let's call the major evolutionary step behind chicken the chickenosaurus... i have no idea what it was so let's just call it that lol. It was probably some runty prehistoric bird or something. Or a bird from the ice age. or whatever. Anyway, over time the chickenosaurus slowly BECOMES the chicken thru natural selection (evolution) and it is vague when the chicken can actually be called a chicken. But say we have a clear line of what makes a chickenosaurus and what makes a chicken... in that case, the evolved chickenosaurus egg that contains the chicken gives birth to the chicken. Now it all depends on one thing and the way you see it: If a chickenosaurus gave birth to the egg that made a chicken, is the egg a chicken egg or a chickenosaurus egg? If you said "chicken egg because it gives birth to a chicken" then the egg came first. If you said "chickenosaurus egg because was laid by a chickenosaurus" then the chicken came first.

Good paradox.

Group A, but not Group 1. Why? Because if both groups are all-encompassing for EVERYONE it CAN be done... so ONLY if that is true. So it's very hard to get two groups that can fit that, where EVERYONE must be either. Not neither, not both. So Groups 1/2 I believe there can be more possibilities, for example indecisive people, dead people, etc. Are monkeys people? etc But if both groups are completely ALL-ENCOMPASSING then of course you can

For the people that are looking for things that only happen once (such as your birth or death or 7th birday, etc) that would also be the first time, so that doesn't work. And I don't think it's time, cuz if time DID come into being, this 'time' that we are 'in' is the 'first time' literally. And its too metaphysical, and as bonanova said, the boy seemed sure, so it's not something religious i hope. So my best guess would be for something thats IMPOSSIBLE but people might say NOTHING'S IMPOSSIBLE so... yeah... how about something truthfully saying that "This statement is a lie" or some sort of paradox...? Yeah I'm interested to hear the answer too. Maybe the first time for something that happens with another pair since it goes from 0 to 2? But then that would be the first time for a pair to happen...? Hmm this is a good one! ;D