When all your problems in life and business can be neatly summed up into 4 absurdly simply outcomes, nothing beats the power of the 2x2 decision matrix. Examples:
Is there a God, and should I worship him?
........... Worship... Don't Worship God......| Great...... Hell No God | So-so.... Live it up!
So what, if non-idiots wish to ruin the pea-brained genius of this matrix with questions like "What if there is more than one god, or that a single god might not care about Christian ideals?". This matrix can show you the only way to live your life correctly. And who can forget the sarcastic logic of Scott Adams, in this comic strip favorite:
Finally, someone has discovered this breakthrough in philosophy that proves you are screwed no matter what you do. Before this, people actually had false hopes of something better, but they need not suffer under any such illusions today!
Pick up your copy at your local Barnes And Noble bookstore today, for these and many other incredible matrices!
My slashdot.sig (when they used to be allowed to be longer) used to say: "Niklaus Wirth invented a language that was acclaimed in theory, but utterly useless in practice. I therefore find it quite appropriate that he chose to name it after the guy who invented Pascal's Wager."
The fallacy of Pascal's Wager is the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the subject of this article.
Terry Pratchett, in one of his inimitable footnotes (from the novel Hogfather), presents the following philosophical fable.
'Possibly the gods exist, and possibly they do not. So why not believe in them in any case? If it's all true you'll go to a lovely place when you die, and if it isn't then you've lost nothing, right?' When he died he woke up in a circle of gods holding nasty-looking sticks and one of them said, 'We're going to show you what we think of Mr.
1. You're not preserved and cryonics doesn't work.
You're dead.
2. You're not preserved and cryonics does work.
You're dead.
3. You're preserved and cryonics doesn't work.
You're dead.
4. You're preserved and cryonics does work.
You're alive
Ergo, cryonics is true. Of course, if Pascal's [stanford.edu] wager [wikipedia.org] is also a useful guide to decision making as it was originally formulated, then we might desire a more complex matrix, so as to include the possibility that God exists and would be pissed off at you
Your favorite is just as dumb. Let's take scenario #4, the only one where you are alive. If cryonics works, and you're preserved, and some guy from the year 2678 feels like going to the expense of not only reviving you but cloning a liver from your stem cells, and if a giant boulder didn't crunch the stainless steel barrel, and if your body chemistry isn't one of the weird 1 out of 100 that would reject freezing, and if the power doesn't go out, and if humanity survives long enough to develop the medical te
You're totally right. They're both dumb. And even my mom has difficulty detecting my sarcasm sometimes.;-)
My point (which I didn't communicate well) was that it's quite ironic that Pascal's wager, which was used to argue that you should "fear God lest he might exist and ye might be punished if you don't" is now trotted out seriously [aleph.se] in favor of cryonics. The bit about taking Pascal's original wager into account when considering cryonics was intended to illustrate, and show that they both fail because of t
"Mr. Watson, come here, I want you." -- Alexander Graham Bell
The Power of the 2x2 Matrix! (Score:5, Interesting)
Is there a God, and should I worship him?
God
No God | So-so
So what, if non-idiots wish to ruin the pea-brained genius of this matrix with questions like "What if there is more than one god, or that a single god might not care about Christian ideals?". This matrix can show you the only way to live your life correctly. And who can forget the sarcastic logic of Scott Adams, in this comic strip favorite:
Bosses:
Good
Evil
Finally, someone has discovered this breakthrough in philosophy that proves you are screwed no matter what you do. Before this, people actually had false hopes of something better, but they need not suffer under any such illusions today!
Pick up your copy at your local Barnes And Noble bookstore today, for these and many other incredible matrices!
Re:The Power of the 2x2 Matrix! (Score:2)
The fallacy of Pascal's Wager is the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the subject of this article.
Re:The Power of the 2x2 Matrix! (Score:3)
Terry Pratchett, in one of his inimitable footnotes (from the novel Hogfather), presents the following philosophical fable.
Re:The Power of the 2x2 Matrix! (Score:1)
1. You're not preserved and cryonics doesn't work.
You're dead.
2. You're not preserved and cryonics does work.
You're dead.
3. You're preserved and cryonics doesn't work.
You're dead.
4. You're preserved and cryonics does work.
You're alive
Ergo, cryonics is true. Of course, if Pascal's [stanford.edu] wager [wikipedia.org] is also a useful guide to decision making as it was originally formulated, then we might desire a more complex matrix, so as to include the possibility that God exists and would be pissed off at you
Re:The Power of the 2x2 Matrix! (Score:2)
Re:The Power of the 2x2 Matrix! (Score:1)
My point (which I didn't communicate well) was that it's quite ironic that Pascal's wager, which was used to argue that you should "fear God lest he might exist and ye might be punished if you don't" is now trotted out seriously [aleph.se] in favor of cryonics. The bit about taking Pascal's original wager into account when considering cryonics was intended to illustrate, and show that they both fail because of t