(A) the tram problem

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1. "Tram puzzle" is one of the most famous thought experiments in the field of ethics. Its content is roughly as follows: a madman tied five innocent people to the tram track. An out-of-control tram is coming towards them and will crush them in a moment. Fortunately, you can pull a lever and let the tram go to another track. But there is still a problem. The madman tied a man to another railroad track. Considering the above situation, should we pull the lever?

The Final Solution of Ten Famous Paradoxes (2) Cattle in the Field

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One of the most important thought experiments in the field of cognitive theory is "open cows". It describes a farmer who is worried about the loss of his prize-winning cow. When the milkman arrived at the farm, he told the farmers not to worry, because he saw the cow in a nearby clearing. Although the farmer believed the milkman, he went to see it himself. He was very satisfied when he saw the familiar black and white shapes. After a while, the milkman went to the clearing to confirm it. The cow is here, but it is hiding in the Woods. There is a big piece of black and white paper wrapped around the tree in the open space. Obviously, the farmer mistook this paper for his own cow. The question is, although the cow has been in the clearing, when the cow was in the clearing, the farmer said that he knew the cow. Is this correct?

The Final Solution of Ten Famous Paradoxes (3) Time Bomb

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If you pay attention to political current events in recent years or watch action movies, then you must be familiar with the thought experiment of "time bomb". It requires you to imagine a bomb or other weapons of mass destruction hidden in your city, and the countdown to the explosion will soon be zero. An insider in custody knows where the bomb is buried. Will you use torture to get information?

The Final Solution of Ten Famous Paradoxes (IV) Einstein's Beam

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Einstein's famous theory of special relativity was inspired by his thought experiment when he was 16 years old. Einstein recalled in his autobiography that he dreamed of pursuing a beam of light in the universe. He reasoned that if he could move next to light at the speed of light, then he should be able to see light become "an electromagnetic field that constantly oscillates in space but stagnates." For Einstein, this thought experiment proved that for this virtual observer, all the laws of physics should be the same as those observed by an observer who is stationary relative to the earth.

The Final Solution of Ten Famous Paradoxes (5) The Ship of Theseus

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One of the oldest thought experiments. It was first recorded in Plutarch. It describes a ship that can sail at sea for hundreds of years, thanks to uninterrupted maintenance and replacement of parts. As long as a board is rotten, it will be replaced, and so on, until all the functional parts are not the original. The question is, will the final ship be theseus's original ship or a completely different ship? If it is not the original ship, when will it cease to be the original ship? The philosopher Thomas Hobbes later extended this view. If a new ship is rebuilt with old parts taken from Theseus' ship, which of the two ships is the real Theseus' ship?

The Final Solution of Ten Famous Paradoxes (VI) Galileo's Gravity Experiment (Galileo's Gravity E)

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In order to refute Aristotle's theory that the speed of free fall depends on the mass of the object, Galileo constructed a simple thought experiment. According to Aristotle, if a light object is tied to a heavy object and then thrown from the tower, the heavy object will fall quickly and the rope between the two objects will be straightened. At this point, the light object will produce a resistance to the heavy object, which will slow down the falling speed. On the other hand, however, the mass of two tied objects should be greater than that of any single object, so the whole system should fall the fastest. This contradiction proves that Aristotle's theory is wrong.

The Final Solution of Ten Famous Paradoxes (7). monkeys and typewriters

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Another thought experiment that occupies a large part in popular culture is "Infinite Monkey Theorem", also known as "Monkey and Typewriter" experiment. The content of the theorem is that if countless monkeys type randomly on countless typewriters for an infinite time, at some point, they will inevitably type all Shakespeare's works. The idea of monkeys and typewriters was popularized by French mathematician Emile Borel in the early 20th century, but the basic idea that countless people and countless hours can produce anything can be traced back to Aristotle.

The Final Solution of Ten Famous Paradoxes (8) Chinese Rooms

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"Chinese Room" was first put forward by American philosopher John Searle in the early 1980s. This experiment requires you to imagine an English speaker in a room, which is closed except for a small window on the door. He has a book with a Chinese translation program. There are enough manuscript paper, pencils and cabinets in the room. Paper written in Chinese is sent into the room through the small window. According to Searle, people in the room can translate these words with his book and reply in Chinese. Although he can't speak Chinese at all, Searle believes that through this process, people in the room can make anyone outside the room think that he can speak fluent Chinese.

The Final Solution of Ten Famous Paradoxes (9) Schrodinger's Cat

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Schrodinger's cat was first proposed by physicist Schrodinger, which is a paradox in the field of quantum mechanics. Its contents are: a cat, some radioactive elements and a bottle of poisonous gas, sealed in a box for one hour. Within an hour, the probability of radioactive elements decaying is 50%. If it decays, a hammer connected to the Geiger counter will be triggered, thus breaking the bottle, releasing poison gas and killing the cat. Because the probability of this happening is equal, Schrodinger thinks that the cat in the box is considered dead and alive before it is opened.

10. The brain in the vat

There is no more influential thought experiment than the so-called "brain in a jar" hypothesis. This thought experiment covers all fields from cognition to philosophy to popular culture. The content of this experiment is: imagine a crazy scientist taking your brain out of your body and putting it in some kind of life-sustaining liquid. Electrodes are inserted into the brain, which is connected to a computer that can generate images and sensory signals. Because all the information you get about the world is processed through your brain, this computer has the ability to simulate your daily experience. If this is really possible, how can you prove that the world around you is real, not some kind of computer-generated simulation environment?