Re: [s-d] [s-b] logical hand grenades

[Alex Smith <ais523@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 2009-01-05 at 17:53 -0500, comex wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Craig Daniel <teucer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > I answer this YES (per Warrigal's arguments) with the observation that
> > having the ability to do so is really kind of dumb.
> 
> Let me tell a (made-up) story.
> 
> I'm on a train, and I'm very tired.  So tired that I miss my stop.
> Well, I'm very annoyed at that because it'll probably take me quite a
> while to get back where I was going to go, if I exit on the next stop
> and take the train back.  But I'm in luck: on the train is an
> emergency pull switch, with a sign next to it that says I can use it
> to stop the train at any time.  It also says I'm should only use the
> switch in emergencies, but I'm in a big hurry: I decide to forgo that
> requirement and use the pull switch to avoid having to go all the way
> to the next stop.
> 
> So I search for several minutes for instructions on how to use the
> pull switch properly, because it seems very poorly documented, missing
> the next stop too in the process.  The stop after that isn't for
> thirty minutes, but I don't care.  I even ask the train conductor for
> help, which he somewhat confusedly tries to give me.
> 
> And then I sit down.
> 
> Horrified, I realize that the sign was wrong.
> 
> The pull switch does not contain a time machine for me to travel back
> in time and stop the train in the past.

The sign was lying.
-- 
ais523

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