Skip to main content

Found somewhere in the Internet....

Read slow..
     1. Unexpected Hanging Paradox

A  judged tells a condemned prisoner that he will be hanged at noon on one weekday in the following week but that the execution will be a surprise to the prisoner. He will not know the day of the hanging until the executioner knocks on his cell door at noon that day.
Having reflected on his sentence, the prisoner draws the conclusion that he will escape from the hanging. His reasoning is in several parts. He begins by concluding that the "surprise hanging" can't be on Friday, as if he hasn't been hanged by Thursday, there is only one day left - and so it won't be a surprise if he's hanged on Friday. Since the judge's sentence stipulated that the hanging would be a surprise to him, he concludes it cannot occur on Friday.
He then reasons that the surprise hanging cannot be on Thursday either, because Friday has already been eliminated and if he hasn't been hanged by Wednesday night, the hanging must occur on Thursday, making a Thursday hanging not a surprise either. By similar reasoning he concludes that the hanging can also not occur on Wednesday, Tuesday or Monday. Joyfully he retires to his cell confident that the hanging will not occur at all.
The next week, the executioner knocks on the prisoner's door at noon on Wednesday — which, despite all the above, was an utter surprise to him. Everything the judge said came true.


     

     2. Omnipotence Paradox  

Could an omnipotent being [GOD] create a stone so heavy that even he could not lift it?


If a being can perform any action, then it should be able to create a task which this being is unable to perform; hence, this being cannot perform all actions. Yet, on the other hand, if this being cannot create a task that it is unable to perform, then there exists something it cannot do

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dard kuch der hi rehta hai, bahut der nahi

A Poem by Gulzar Dard kuch der hi rehta hai, bahut der nahi, jis tarah shaakh se toray hue ek pattay ka rang mand par jata hai kuch roz alag shaakh se reh kar shaakh se toot kar yeh dard jeeye ga kab tak? khatam ho jayegi jab is ki rasad, tim-timayega zara der ko bujhtay-bujhtay, aur phir lambi si ek sans dhuan ki le kar khatam ho jayega, yeh dard bhi, bujh jayega. dard kuch der hi rehta hai, bahut der nahi...                                                                             - gulzar

Thodi Si Zameen Thoda Aasmaan!

I completed my three years in the USA. The previous three years of my precious late 20s and early 30s have been gone just like that. At times, I feel like I'm too hard on myself. I should be content with what I have accomplished, but there is always more to learn and always more to gain! I hate this feeling, to be honest. I hate being in the constant feeling of what could have been better! Don't you think we should just stop striving for more? Stop dreaming about earning more money; stop getting lured for promotions. But then what is there to live if there isn't more? This thought has been a constant conflict for me. To stop or not to stop, that is the question! When I was around 15, my mother used to say, "Tu jaldi bada ho gya" meaning, "I have grown up early." I was very mature for my age and started looking at life very differently than my peers. All I wanted was "Thodi Si Zameen Thoda Aasmaan," but nowadays, I find myself in the same rat ra...

Hedgehog's dilemma

I like this fable a lot. This fable tells us about relationships and how would you describe the best relationship.    Sigmund Freud, father of psychoanalysis has used this situation in the fable in his analysis of the challenges of human intimacy. This fable is about the dilemma faced by a group of Hedgehogs (Porcupines). " It was the coldest winter ever.  Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together to keep warm.  This way they covered and protected themselves, but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.  After a while, they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen.  So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.  Wisely, they decided to go back to being together.  They learned to live with the little wounds caused by the close relationship with their compan...