Three logicians walk into a bar - eviltoast

The bartender asks “Do all three of you want a beer?”

The first logician says “I don’t know”.

The second logician says “I don’t know.”

The third logician says “Yes.”

  • joku415@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They all had made up their mind. You don’t need to know the others decision to answer No to the question, but you do to say yes. If the first didn’t want a beer they could definitively answer no. They did, but didn’t know the others decisions so couldn’t say yes. Same with the 2nd. The third could say yes because he knew the other two didn’t say no, so whatever they wanted was the answer

    • Ignotum@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      OCs point was that if the first person hadn’t made up their mind yet, that would also cause them to say “i don’t know”, but the two following logicians seem to assume that the first person said “i don’t know” because they wanted it but didn’t know if the other two did

      It’s a false dichotomy and faulty logic if you look too closely

      But it’s a pretty funny joke

      • MxM111@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        If he has not made a mind, he does not want beer. He might want beer few moments later, but at the moment of answering the question, he does not. That’s what my logic tells me.

        • Ignotum@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Hmm, that’s true, if the question is if all three in this moment wants a beer, then not knowing if you want it means that you don’t currently want it in the strictest sense 🤔

        • logicbomb@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This is a good point, but I’ll move the goalposts very slightly and suggest that human brains are capable of wanting something without knowing that they want something. For example, if you say you don’t know whether you want a beer, and then the person next to you orders a beer, then at that moment, you might realize that you really did want a beer before.

          • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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            1 year ago

            It’s been shown that your brain makes it’s decision several seconds before your consciousness is aware of it.

            So, it just takes a second for the Ego to catch up with the Id

              • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com
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                1 year ago

                I think the areas of your brain that would be responsible for carrying out the decision start activating before you’re consciously aware of making the decision.

                It’s been a hot minute since I read the article on it, so I’m not 100% sure on the explanation.

            • MxM111@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              More like 100-300 ms, but yes. However, this is much shorter time than to say “I do not know”

      • bushvin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Logicians is the keyword here… There are only 2 possible answers: yes (true) or no (false)

        In logic there is no other option