Re: [BITS] Skewering AI for Fun and Profit -- 230 Final Exam
David Crook (dcrook@commwerks.com)
Mon, 16 Mar 1998 11:48:44 -0800
I'm not a real doofus, but I play one at a national laboratory. wrote:
>
> > Godwin's Law
> > /prov./ [Usenet] "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a
> > comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a tradition
> > in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever
> > mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in
> > progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper
> > bound on thread length in those groups.
>
> Thus Godwin's Law is the end of its own losing, one-post argument.
>
I think there is also a corrolary stating that as a usenet discussion
grows longer, the probability of someone mentioning Godwin's Law also
approaches one.
I don't know if any has calculated the probability of nazi's mentioning
Godwin's law on a usenet thread, but the probabilty of Hitler doing it
is zero.
Dave "Oh wait, I forget to set this to no-archive, oh well" Crook
--
David Crook
Programmer/Analyst
Commwerks -- Industrial Strength Internet Solutions
dcrook@commwerks.com, http://www.commwerks.com