Path: news.net.uni-c.dk!howland.erols.net!feed2.news.rcn.net!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!not-for-mail From: Jerry Avins Newsgroups: comp.ai.neural-nets,comp.lang.apl,comp.lang.awk,comp.lang.beta,comp.lang.cobol,comp.lang.dylan,comp.lang.forth Subject: Re: Einstein's Riddle Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 18:51:15 -0500 Organization: The Hectic Eclectic Lines: 58 Message-ID: <3AAD60F3.120F284A@ieee.org> References: <3AACB567.A59B8497@Azonic.co.nz> <3AACE6CF.7F05484D@ieee.org> <0W8r6.178$fo5.14165@news.get2net.dk> Reply-To: jya@ieee.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: UmFuZG9tSVbtHEzoXR8rU+sIK2eKFQQjY+nLGB+8vUWZAQ9dzrxyNREdbIB+FsWi X-Complaints-To: abuse@rcn.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 12 Mar 2001 23:51:31 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (Win95; U) X-Accept-Language: en Xref: news.net.uni-c.dk comp.ai.neural-nets:67537 comp.lang.apl:29374 comp.lang.awk:17115 comp.lang.beta:12743 comp.lang.cobol:102529 comp.lang.dylan:24161 comp.lang.forth:78520 Jim Lucas wrote: > ... > > There is insufficient accurate information to solve this. > > Absolutely true, but also completely false. In one sense, there's not enough Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds? > information in *any* text -- including yours and mine -- to make any sense of > it, whatsoever. Communication and understanding are based on assumptions of > shared meaning, perception, and even reasoning processes. E.g., I assume that > your message was written in English, and that our individual understandings of > the words and phrases (and the abbreviation "e.g.") are sufficiently similar > that I have understood your content (though perhaps not your intent), and you > will understand mine. I'm inclined to think that your English is more precise > than that used in stating the puzzle (could the cigar-cigaret confusion be due > to inexpert translation from the German?), and using that assumption I am > reasonably confident that I have understood the intended logic of the puzzle > sufficiently to agree with the others who have actually solved it as to the > intended meaning of all the constraints, as well as the final, unique solution. > > > While each individual smokes a different brand of cigar, > > Pall Mall (at least) is a cigarette. Pall Mall is known not to be a cigar. It is not logically required, but it is a fact. > > So is Prince, but that doesn't require that they're not also cigar brands. I > believe that Dunhill makes both cigarettes and cut tobacco, but as a > non-smoker, I haven't bothered to become an expert. > > > Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. > > You must be an engineer. You got a logic puzzle, and from it you made a > semantic-philosophical nit pick. My altogether too subtle way to say that when -- indeed if -- Einstein claimed that most of the world's population couldn't solve this trivial logic puzzle, that was not a reference to the level on intelligence required. > > I'm tempted to ask you if you can write a program to do such nit picking for > you, but I'm sure that would be a *much* more difficult problem than the one > attributed to Einstein (Andrew Einstein, perhaps?). That would require bringing to bear a great deal of artificial intelligence. Ninety-nine percent of the world, me included, doesn't know how to do that. Indeed, the first programmer (who will likely also be an engineer) who creates a sound embodiment of artificial stupidity will probably be awarded a Nobel Prize. ö¿ö > > :-) /Jim Lucas Jerry -- Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get. -----------------------------------------------------------------------