Autzoo.1615 net.math utzoo!laura Mon May 3 10:13:09 1982 Newcomb's paradox I think I missed the paradox. Obviously there is something that I am not understanding -- I suppose I must be one of those people who see this paradox so biasedly that they miss the point. If someone can tell me where I am wrong, I would appreciate it. Take both boxes. If there arent any goodies in Box B when you open the door and make your selection, then choosing Box B wont make them appear. (Yes I have problems with Shrodinger's Cat, too). Take both boxes -- if you can get away with it take all the furniture and other contents of the room too -- you may be able to sell them for a profit. If the computer is going to screw you by not leaving the money in the box, then you are going to be screwed anyway, if you take only box B you will get nothing! Now you can try to fool the computer into thinking that it is safe for it to leave the money -- you can study yoga or hypnotism to try and create the erroneous impression within you, or better yet you could work very hard and get your computer science degree in AI under the professor(s) who designed the algorithm(s) which give the computer the 99.9% accuracy. Psyching out the computer is one thing, but once it is time to enter that room and choose, the computer has already set things up for you. Get both boxes -- and hope that through what ever kinnivance and luck you have, you will win it all. If you dont, take your medicine -- remembering that taking only Box B would not have yielded you any better result. confused, Laura Creighton decvax!utzoo!laura ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.