From: Justin Corwin (thesweetestdream@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Dec 12 2000 - 18:54:37 MST
as enjoyable and uplifting a story that is, i'm completely unable to find a
connection to your amatuer psychic exchange.
you would, however make a cool uncle
justin
>From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
>Reply-To: extropians@extropy.org
>To: extropians@extropy.org
>Subject: Re: Nicq's Details was: Reason +/-Faith
>Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 17:12:17 -0500
>
>Dan Fabulich wrote:
> >
> > You know, I've been here for several years, and I must say, this is
> > right up there as one of the strangest exchanges I've ever seen on
> > this list.
>
>Why, thank you!
>
>Perhaps this will all become clearer if I relate a story: I was recently,
>a few weeks back, waiting at an airport. Next to me was a family, also
>waiting - a mother, a very young boy (4 or 5), and a slightly older girl.
>The boy had five pennies. He would lay them out on the table next to me,
>in patterns - the one I saw was a star, a penny at the center and four
>other pennies in a square around it - and then pick up the pennies again
>and count them. "One, two, three, four, five. I have five pennies."
>
>What would *you* have done?
>
>I, of course, took out my wallet, as unobtrusively as possible, and
>extracted all the pennies - I had five. I didn't have to do this part
>completely invisibly, since there was no logical reason for the people
>next to me to notice - there was no way they could know that I was taking
>out pennies - but I did want to make sure there was nothing memorable
>about the action. Anyway, the next time the kid's back was turned - and
>his mother and sister were looking away, of course - I carefully and
>quietly put a penny on the table. He noticed it, picked it up, added it
>to his collection, and then counted. "One, two, three, four, five, six.
>I have six pennies." Then he started to lay them out again. Again, I
>waited for my moment, then added another two pennies. "One, two, three,
>four, five, six, seven, eight. I have eight pennies." He turned away and
>started tugging on Mommy's sleeve.
>
>Boy: "Mommy, I have eight pennies."
>Mommy (clearly not paying any attention): "That's nice, dear."
>Eliezer (while boy's back is turned): Adds another penny.
>
>His sister actually caught me at this point, but I managed to put a finger
>to my lips - the silent "Shhh!" gesture - before she started laughing. So
>she just watched, though with a big smile on her face.
>
>Boy (counts again): "Mommy, I have nine pennies."
>Mommy: "Uh huh."
>
>At this point I tried to add a tenth penny, but the boy turned around
>before I was ready and caught me - he said "Hey!" - and we all started
>laughing.
>
>
>
>What are *you* complaining about? He got to keep the pennies. My
>original plan, if I hadn't been caught, was to go up to ten pennies and
>then start stealing them until he was back down to five. That would have
>enlivened not just one day but the rest of his life.
>
>-- -- -- -- --
>Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
>Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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