--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], "Bryon Daly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 10/10/06, maru dubshinki [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Now, the stranger appears to be absolutely useless, but nevertheless, > > removed from the picture the whole thing breaks down in the case where > > N = 2. What is the use of the useless stranger? > > > The key here as I see it is that prior to the stranger's announcement, each > of the blue-dot natives thinks that either: > 1) he is red-dot and there is only the one blue-dot native, who in turn sees > all red-dot natives > 2) he is a blue-dot, and the other blue-dot also sees one blue-dot native.
But how does this work for N(blue) = 4? The initial state is that each native has two cases: 1) There are three blue-dot natives, and each blue dot native sees two blue dot natives. 2) There are four blue-dot natives, including himself, and each blue dot native sees three blue dot natives. In this case, I don't see how the naturalist provides any additional information. In the initial state, every native knows that every other native knows that there is at least one blue dot. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
