Digital Underground - uXu - Underground eXperts United #uxu-295

### ### ### ### ### #### ### ### ### #### ### ### ##### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ##### ### ### ########## ### ### ########## ### ### ### ### Underground eXperts United Presents... ####### ## ## ####### # # ####### ####### ####### ## ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## #### ## ## #### # # ####### ####### ####### ## ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ## ####### ####### # # ####### ####### ####### [ Less Known Dilemmas ] [ By The GNN ] ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ LESS KNOWN DILEMMAS by THE GNN/DualCrew-Shining/uXu In this file you will find five different dilemmas, rather common in real life. I do not claim that these are especially good ones - but, then, even the enigmas invented by Zeno and his friends back in the good old days are claimed to be false too. So, at least I am in good company. (1) THE ANDERS/ELLEN PROBLEM Anders and Ellen are a happy couple that suffers from the minor malady that neither of are able to stand large amounts of alcohol, but they cannot stop drinking after the first drink (a very common habit.) Therefor, both of them are trying to prevent the other one from heavy drinking at parties, so that the evening will not end up at a puke-o-rama at the toilet. A/E has bought a bottle of whiskey, that they have decided to enjoy this evening. If we suppose that the bottle contains around 10 drinks, and that A/R are only able to drink 2 each before they end up at the toilet, it means that they will start preventing each other from drinking after 2 drinks. When E has poured the third glass, A will take it away, and vice-versa. But the drink A has taken away from E, he will drink himself (due to the 'cannot stop' phenomenon). The drink that E has taken away from A, she will drink. So, by taking away each others drinks for the sake of not ending up at the toilet, the result will be that they both end up at the toilet, saying their prayers to the porcelain throne the whole night. (2) LENNY'S DILEMMA Lenny is a calm man who never hurts anyone, except when he is insulted. At a bar, he meets an individual, A, who claims that all people who are named such a criminal name as 'Lenny' are, by nature, violent people (A need not to know Lenny's name) that attacks other people without reason. Lenny is not a violent man, but since A at the bar indirectly insults him by claiming that he his violent, Lenny will get violent and punch the smart-ass in the face. This means that the individual will say that he were right, and that Lenny was a violent man, even though Lenny is not. (A quick objection to this idea is to say that Lenny is, de facto, violent since he actually hits A. But then you have missed the 'without reason' point, and the deduction from the indirect insult.) (3) BACKFIRE OF AGONY Eric cannot write on his Masters essay if he is in a state of agony. It is due to be handed in the end of this term, and Eric has decided to begin writing tomorrow. But for every day that passes, Eric feels more and more distressed due to the fact that he has not written anything yet. If we suppose that agony can be measured on a scale: 1, ..., N, were 1 is minor agony and N (infinite number) agony deluxe, and that a state each state prevents him to write the same number of pages, Eric cannot write the first page tomorrow since he is in state of agony 1. The day after yesterday, Eric will be in state 2 of agony, and will be even less able to write something. When the semester is over, Eric cannot have finished his essay since he cannot get out of the increasing states of agony. (4) THE PARADOX OF EGO-FILES Let us suppose that the levels of egoism in a group of people who produces an e-zine can be divided into three; 1) no egoism whatsoever, 2) normal level of egoism and 3) incredible egoism. Those who writes files that are meant to the expose how wonderful the particular group they are members of will end up in 2. But those who do not write any such files will not end up in 1. Instead, they will end up in 3. This is because the fact that they do not write ego-files will show that they are so self-occupied that they believe that need not to write such files. Therefor, the group that do not write ego-files will be regarded as more egoistic than those who do. This paradox can be a bit more easy to understand if you consider the slogan "modesty is the art of encouraging people to find out for themselves how incredibly wonderful you are." (5) THE IMPOSSIBILITY TO BE YOURSELF Agent A is a person who is very strange, i.e. he is not like everybody else. He acts in an uncommon way and has weird interests. He is like this because he wants to be himself, thus not conform to the more 'common' people and become a person who is not. But since he does not act like the 'common' people, these people will believe that he is pretending to be someone else (because they compare him to themselves), and therefor demand him to be 'himself' and stop 'acting.' If A begins to act like these people, they will happily conclude that he is now 'himself,' while the truth is that he is not. In the end, the agent cannot escape to be, or be regarded as, someone who is not what he is, but what he is not. --- My best regards to Anders Nygards, Ellen Pollack, Lenny Sonesson, Eric Sundelin, the global e-zine scene and Karin Hakansson who invented these 'problems' without really knowing about it. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Aim! Reload! Aim! Reload! Aim! Reload! Nothing to do? How nice. CALL THE STASH +46-13-READINDEXFILE \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ three, two, one, robot --------------------------------------------------------------------------- uXu #295 Underground eXperts United 1996 uXu #295 Call DESTINY STONE II -> +61-9246-3491 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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