Re: Clint & Robert on "Faith in Science"

From: Dan Fabulich (daniel.fabulich@yale.edu)
Date: Mon Oct 25 1999 - 13:11:58 MDT


'What is your name?' 'Clint O'Dell.' 'IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOUR NAME
IS!!!':

> I know the laws of probability are real not because I BELIEVE in it but
> because I CAN PROVE IT.

<devil's advocacy>

Ahem. I assert that you cannot prove it. Robert attacked probability on
its strongest side... What would you say to this experiment?

I assert that it is completely impossible for you to flip a coin 1 million
times and have it turn up heads every time. When I say completely
impossible, I mean that it will never EVER happen, no matter how many
times you try.

</devil's advocacy>

Of course, I provide no explanation as to why this would be the case.
Ockham's Razor (and other reasonable principles) suggest that we should
reject my claim. However, these are all *principles*, reasonable though
they may be, all of which the above proposal calls into question.

Can you prove that the claim is false by experiment? See you next
millenium.

-Dan

      -unless you love someone-
    -nothing else makes any sense-
           e.e. cummings



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:05:37 MST