A prison was overcrowded. Not just crowded, mind you, but overcrowded.
The warden decided that he would offer up a challenge and selected three prisoners at random.
They were brought into the warden's office and told that a duffel bag had three black hats and two red hats inside.
A prison guard would approach each prisoner from behind and pick a hat from the bag at random and put it on each man's head in sequence. If any prisoner could tell the warden the color of the hat on his head, he would be set free immediately. But if he guessed, and was wrong, he would be shot immediately. All the prisoners agreed to the proposal.
After the hats were placed, the first prisoner looks at #2 and #3 and says "I don't know."
The second prisoner looks at #1 and #3 and says "I don't know."
The third prisoner is blind. He says "I know."
Does he? Explain.
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IGNORE LIST: mykcob4 [Should be banned permanently from this forum.]
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The only combination that gives certainty is two reds. Neither #1 nor #2 saw that, so they each saw either red + black or black + black. There aren’t enough blacks for them both to have seen two blacks, which means that the combinations must be red+black and black + black. Therefore all three blacks are accounted for, leaving just one red.
Simple.
After sober reflection:
#1 and #2 could both have seen red+black, or one could have seen red+black and the other black + black. There are two possible don't know combinations, so the answer is no. #3 can't be sure what color hat he has on.
Wrong, twice in a row.
There is a 75% chance he has a black hat.
So there's no way to be certain, is there?
There are 60 permutations, 7 of which are unique; with each unique one appearing more than once:
1) red,red,black; 6 times
2) black,black,red; 12 times
3) black,red,red; 6 times
4) black,black,black; 6 times
5) red,black,black; 12 times
6) black,red,black; 12 times
7) red,black,red; 6 times
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If we assume that prisoner 1 didn't see result 3, we can remove it.
If we assume that prisoner 2 didn't see result 7, we can remove it.
1) red,red,black; 6 times
2) black,black,red; 12 times
4) black,black,black; 6 times
5) red,black,black; 12 times
6) black,red,black; 12 times
For prisoner 3 to get his chances to 100%, it would seem his best course of action would be to eliminate result 2 somehow; but I can't find a way. Leaving 12 permutations where he has red, out of the 48 remaining permutations (25% to have red, 75% to have black).
Always cheat = https://lastedenblog.wordpress.com/2016/08/23/3-prisoners-and-5-hats-the...
Oh cool, yeah so there is a way to eliminate #2
First this thought experiment did not say anything about a prisoner simply taking off his hat and checking. Or some other method of cheating/beating the game.
Assuming the above is not possible then:
Only if one of the prisoners that can see, see's 2 red hats can that prisoner be certain of the color of his own hat, (black.) The information the 3rd gained from hearing the other two did not see two red hats does not give enough information for the 3rd blind prisoner to know. Even if he was not blind, he would not know unless the 3rd person saw 2 red hats;
There is no way a blind person could assume both prisoners would employ perfect logic. If I was the 3rd person, even not blind I would never make that assumption (risk my life on 2 people I never met that live in prison) to make the complex correct logical conclusion.
Implicit Lesson
Even when everyone has all of the information possible, they still arrive at very different conclusions. After 92 views, we have wrong answers and a cheater who was unable to solve it himself, here at the profoundly *intellectual* and *rational* Atheist Republic.
Does anyone "give a shit"? You may all dance around this as long and as angrily as you wish, but all your anger will avail you absolutely nothing. The lesson has been shown to you. Will you learn from it?
Interesting! Much like how believers keep coming up with different gods and endless variations of them.
Look at you using a swear word after crying about others using them.
Such is the nature of sin. Mockers pretend that they are wise when fabricating such nonsense as the *Multiverse*.
Here is a challenge to atheists everywhere. What person has exited from prison, proclaiming he has "seen the light of atheism."
He has been to the depths of despair, commited horrible atrocities, but now, now he is wise beyond all measure, believing in... nothing.
Nothing made us. Nothing made the universe. It's all so simple. So hopeful. A beautiful future. Oh wait. Nix that part.
Zero future. But nothing still made the universe. Just come up with your "scientific" explanation for that. I'll be anxious to read what it is.
Thomas Paine exited prison, narrowly missing the Guillotine. He then finished writing "The Age of Reason" which he started writing while in prison.
I spent thirteen years in prison and led a terrible life as a theist. Today I am an atheist and live a life I am proud of. BTW, GeniusDisruptive, you never responded to my post on Proof there is no god. Interesting.
It's interesting that less than 0.1% of the prison population is atheist. How do all those believers end up in jail? I thought they had a monopoly on morality.
Please cite ONE claim by a Christian authority that "believers have a monopoly on morality." Just one.
You remind me of a public employee who spewed out the lie, "You conservatives just want to KILL everyone and let GOD sort it out."
Now I'm sure she had hissed her vile lie many times in the past to Leftist audiences which nodded all their heads in complete agreement, and so her lie had been self-perpetuating for years. But this time, I simply asked one question:
"Can you name for me one prominent conservative who advocated "killing everyone" and letting "God sort it out"?
She was stunned. Speechless. After thinking about what was obviously the first such challenge she had ever gotten on this horrific lie, she stammered, "I didn't say 'KILL.' "
Oh but you did. I heard you quite clearly. [ Responding to lie #2 of hers.]
"Well then what about the Crusades!"
Well the Crusades took place in the eleventh century. There was no America then much less conservatives. Can you get a little more contemporary? [Responding to lie #3 of hers. She was simply digging herself deeper into her pit of lies, and she knew it.]
So in desperation, she picked up the telephone next to her and said "I've got to get this."
The telephone had not rung a twinkle, but I let her go after this, her fourth and final lie. She reminds me a very great deal of everyone else here. Again I pose the question: Is there NO Christian here besides me? No Jew? Only intolerant, condescending (but I repeat myself) atheists? Clearly debate is impossible when you drive away anyone with a different perspective on the future of our very souls.
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
"At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries." - Robert Jastrow, physicist and cosmologist, God and the Astronomers, page 116
Freefromgod: "I spent thirteen years in prison and led a terrible life as a theist."
[Did you commit crimes BECAUSE of your presumably Christian beliefs? No. You simply though you could get away with criminal activity, or else you did NOT "give a shit." Obviously you learned a lesson from being imprisoned for 13 years, viz., don't do that stuff again.]
"Today I am an atheist and live a life I am proud of."
[Why? What is there to be "proud of"? You have no basis for "morality" other than what YOU claim is moral. Why is YOUR morality any better than that of murderers, rapists, and child molesters? It's a Darwninan world, right? Anything goes. Just survive and outlast others.]
"BTW, GeniusDisruptive, you never responded to my post on Proof there is no god. Interesting."
[I have read precisely ONE post since arriving here in which the author agreed with anything I said. Every other response has been hateful, condescending, rude, arrogant, pretentious, and/or vulgar. I am not interested in responding to every single retort, however meaningless or uncivil. Why don't YOU try posting in a forum where you are alone, and everybody else is bullying? Have you ever tried that? I have, often in Leftist forums. This one is just like all the others. Interesting.]
I visit theist and far right boards all the time. Unlike you, I fully expect, and do not take offence to any bullying, and do not expect anyone to agree with me. I don't cry about it. I go to debate and see their responses.
Its true, chimp3, prison is full of religious people. I was one of them. There is something alluring about magical thinking when you're too lazy or insecure to use your own ability to think. Also the sense of community is comforting, not to mention the belief that YOU know the meaning of the universe, thats heady shit. Not to mention the similarity to gang mentality in prison. Religion provides structure, meaning, purpose and community, and all you have to do is sacrifice your own ability to think for yourself.
Yes. Perhaps atheism leads people to taking responsibility for our own destinies.