By knowing which uranium atoms belong to which isotope, and are therefore less stable, we can achieve better than random guessing.
But yeah, I’m sure you can define the problem narrowly enough that it’s impossible to improve on randomness—but then you’re switching sides, enlisting your intellectual energy in the service of entropy and decay rather than order and progress, so I’m not sure it’s fair to allow that.
Also… is it fair to call it “logical rudeness” if someone just doesn’t notice that you’ve made a point? (Or is perhaps tacitly agreeing and doesn’t see the need for further comment, even.) It would be nice if forum software (especially here!) had a flag so that commenters could say “this is a point in need of answering”, and others could be alerted that there was a point which hadn’t been answered. See this for some expansion on this idea.
I’m sure you can define the problem narrowly enough that it’s impossible to improve on randomness.
Is it fair to call it “logical rudeness” if someone just doesn’t notice that you’ve made a point?
Answered here; this seems to have been the case. (I disagree on the ‘switching sides’ view—that idea seems not to be constructed in a rational way.)
It would be nice if forum software (especially here!) had a flag so that commenters could say “this is a point in need of answering”, and others could be alerted that there was a point which hadn’t been answered.
By knowing which uranium atoms belong to which isotope, and are therefore less stable, we can achieve better than random guessing.
But yeah, I’m sure you can define the problem narrowly enough that it’s impossible to improve on randomness—but then you’re switching sides, enlisting your intellectual energy in the service of entropy and decay rather than order and progress, so I’m not sure it’s fair to allow that.
Also… is it fair to call it “logical rudeness” if someone just doesn’t notice that you’ve made a point? (Or is perhaps tacitly agreeing and doesn’t see the need for further comment, even.) It would be nice if forum software (especially here!) had a flag so that commenters could say “this is a point in need of answering”, and others could be alerted that there was a point which hadn’t been answered. See this for some expansion on this idea.
Answered here; this seems to have been the case. (I disagree on the ‘switching sides’ view—that idea seems not to be constructed in a rational way.)
This sounds like a very good idea.