Computer Chess Club Archives


Search

Terms

Messages

Subject: Re: OT, about probability and statistics

Author: pavel

Date: 16:24:18 02/02/02

Go up one level in this thread


On February 02, 2002 at 18:49:58, Roy Eassa wrote:

>On February 02, 2002 at 00:59:52, Dann Corbit wrote:
>
>>All events have some randomness associated with them.  A light switch -- we flip
>>it on and the light goes on (maybe).  Maybe the switch goes bad (quite unlikely,
>>but I had it happen in my house).  Maybe the bulb burns out or is burned out.
>>Maybe the power goes off right at that instant.  Probably -- it goes on.  But
>>before the event has occurred or not occurred we really don't know which it will
>>be (or something else altogether unplanned: There is no lightbulb in the
>>socket).
>>
>>Not only do I think that our events are not predetermined, I think that
>>(paraphrasing a wise saying):
>>"Unforseen circumstances happen to us all."
>
>
>Many of the people with whom I interact react to any low-probability event with
>statements like "that's proof that God exists!" or "that's a real miracle!"  I
>sometimes say something like "since trillions of events occur every day, even
>one-in-a-billion events are not infrequent," but of course I am wasting my
>breath.  Once a person is beyond a certain age, they are not likely (there I go
>again) to begin seeing things in a probabilistic way.


A-h!
I guess I am not old enough ;)

pavs



This page took 0 seconds to execute

Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700

Current Computer Chess Club Forums at Talkchess. This site by Sean Mintz.