The 5 Doors: A Complicated (sequential) card choosing Game/ Also: Can opener and can analogy

By well-wisher

Fri, 30 Jan 2015
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3 comments
 

 

  1. Behind five doors are hidden five things but you do not know which is behind which door/ They could be represented as cards, each with a door upon the back and what is behind the door on the other side. At the beginning of the game they would be shuffled and laid out face down.
  2. Behind one door is a DRAGON; behind one door is a SLEEPING PRINCESS behind one door is a MAGIC SWORD; behind one door is an EVIL WIZARD and behind one door is his MAGIC WAND.
  3. Pick the dragon and you would need to pick the magic sword immediately afterwards or lose, because only the magic sword can slay the dragon; also the magic wand will not wake the princess until the dragon is slain; if the dragon is not slain then the wand, rather than waking the princess, will turn her to stone.
  4. Pick the magic sword first and you would not have to worry about picking the dragon but would still have to worry about picking the evil wizard.
  5. Pick the Sleeping Princess and you would need to pick the magic wand without which the sleeping Princess would not wake and you would still have to worry about the dragon and the wizard; also the wand will not wake the sleeping princess until the dragon is slain, as mentioned earlier, until the dragon is slain the wand will only turn her to stone.
  6. Pick the magic wand and you can wake the sleeping princess, you can also defeat the evil wizard with it but the wand won’t wake the princess until the dragon is slain, until the dragon is slain it will turn her to stone and you can’t defeat the dragon without picking the magic sword.
  7. Pick the wizard and you lose unless you pick the wand next because he can only be defeated with the magic wand.
  8. Basically, this is a game not only of choosing the right card but also of choosing the right card in the right sequence; pick the dragon and you must have already picked/immediately pick the magic sword; pick the evil wizard and you must have already picked/immediately pick the magic wand; pick the sleeping princess and to wake her you must have already picked the magic wand and already have picked both the sword and the dragon (if you haven’t already picked the sword and slain the dragon then you can’t pick the princess, if you have the wand, without losing.)
  9. The chooser who successfully wakes the Sleeping Princess wins the game. ( The best sequence to win the game is pick the sword then pick the dragon then pick the wand then pick the wizard then pick the princess, although you can win the game without picking the wizard).

Thought inspired by Descartes/ Solipsism: The can opener and the can analogy OR Why does my mind exist?

If you know for certain that a can opener exists but you’re not sure if cans exist, it would seem very plausible that cans exist because the can opener exists and it is so good for opening cans.

Likewise, if the world exists and is not a dream then the existence of my mind makes more sense to me because my mind is such a useful tool for surviving in the world.

In other words, the world seems to provide a practical function for my mind; a reason why my mind should exist.

But if the world is just a dream then the only apparent function of my mind; the only reason why it exists, is to have a dream.

Certificate PG
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Children's

Comments

Submitted by Canonette on

I don't dream passively.  Even as I'm dreaming, my mind tries to make sense of my dream.  Isn't that another function (or series of functions) I've added to your list? Cognition, affect, understanding.

I can't read in my dreams - I always find that most puzzling.

 

Submitted by well-wisher on

Yes but a can opener can be used to crack open a nutshell, if I hit the nutshell with it hard enough yet the can opener is a more sophisticated tool than a hammer and is designed to open tins.

So too the human mind might have evolved into a tool sophisticated enough to perform the very difficult task of surviving in, against predators and other dangers, and gaining an evolutionary advantage in, this world but also be capable of performing the less difficult task of analysing dreams.

Dreams are rarely deadly, but making the wrong decisions in life may result in your death; the death of your children and other loved ones; life is a massive responsibility and I feel the human mind/my mind is a tool worthy of the immense task of life but I feel it is overqualified for the simple job/game of being a dream interpreter.

What if I interpret a dream wrongly? What consequences are there? But if I interpret life wrongly then the consequences may be dire ones. Life is more serious than a dream and, to me, my mind is a tool made to deal with serious things.

Oh look, a link. I wonder where it leads.(link is external)

JoHn

Submitted by Canonette on

I wasn't agreeing or disagreeing with you, merely soliciting your opinion as to whether the unconscious and conscious mind perform the same functions, because it seemed to have a bearing on your idea.  You said that if the world wasn't real, then the only function of the mind was to dream, but I thought that dreaming was perhaps more complicated than it seems.

I find your work very inspiring Well-Wisher.  I don't know anything about philosophy and have resisted learning about it, because it seems like putting my mind in a cage. However, it's actually quite interesting.