One of the last of the many legendary contests won by the British philosopher A. J. Ayer was his encounter with Mike Tyson in 1987. As related by Ben Rogers in ”A. J. Ayer: A Life,” Ayer — small, frail, slight as a sparrow and then 77 years old — was entertaining a group of models at a New York party when a girl ran in screaming that her friend was being assaulted in a bedroom. The parties involved turned out to be Tyson and Naomi Campbell.
”Do you know who … I am?” Tyson asked in disbelief when Ayer urged him to desist: ”I’m the heavyweight champion of the world.”
”And I am the former Wykeham professor of logic,” Ayer answered politely. ”We are both pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men.”
Impressive, but it does have a pretty dramatic possible failure state where Tyson’s response is “I suggest we settle this by punching each other.” (In deed if not in word.)
I think the cleverness is in the violation of Tyson’s expectations about how the encounter will go. Ayer went off script and that seems to have nonplussed Tyson.
Impossibly good, since the placement of money is dependent on if the boxes are removed, not the money in them. So, smash both boxes, take the money in them, only remove the one box thus making sure there was money in both.
[Via] (http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/12/24/reviews/001224.24spurlit.html)
Impressive, but it does have a pretty dramatic possible failure state where Tyson’s response is “I suggest we settle this by punching each other.” (In deed if not in word.)
I think the cleverness is in the violation of Tyson’s expectations about how the encounter will go. Ayer went off script and that seems to have nonplussed Tyson.
And so philosophyboxing was born.
Relevant for LW: Could superhumanly strong AI box its way out of the box?
How good would a boxing AI be at Newcomb’s Problem?
Impossibly good, since the placement of money is dependent on if the boxes are removed, not the money in them. So, smash both boxes, take the money in them, only remove the one box thus making sure there was money in both.