Imagine a prisoner in a prison. He is sentenced to death and has been told that he will be killed on one day of the following week. He has been assured that the day will be a surprise to him, so he will not be anticipating the hangman on a particular day, thus keeping his stress levels in check.
The prisoner starts to think to himself, if I am still alive on Thursday, then clearly I shall be hanged on Friday, this would mean that I then know the day of my death, therefore I cannot be hanged on Friday. Now then, if I am still alive on Wednesday, then clearly I shall be hanged on Thursday, since I have already ruled out Friday. The prisoner works back with this logic, finally concluding that he cannot after all be hanged, without already knowing which day it was.
Casually, resting on his laurels, sitting in his prison cell on Tuesday, the warden arrives to take him to be hanged, the prisoner was obviously surprised!
Originally posted by Codfish[Tip] Only a tip:
Imagine a prisoner in a prison. He is sentenced to death and has been told that he will be killed on one day of the following week. He has been assured that the day will be a surprise to him, so he will not be anticipating the hangman on a particular day, thus keeping his stress levels in check.
The prisoner starts to think to himself, if I am still aliv ...[text shortened]... l on Tuesday, the warden arrives to take him to be hanged, the prisoner was obviously surprised!
this is not a paradox. The prisoner's reasoning may be consistent or not. That depends if he believes what he was told or not.
Belief logic isn't an intuitive matter.
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- J