An infinitely bored librarian
23rd June, 2008
Matt, having read my recent articles about set-theory, feeds back:
The best “real world” example of Russell’s paradox I’ve seen (I forget where now) is this: A librarian, bored with work, sets about making two indexes of books in their library. In book one, she lists all books which don’t reference themselves. In book two, she lists all books which do reference themselves. But then she thinks: I’ve just created two new books, so I should list them as well. But neither book references itself, so they should both be listed in book one. But by doing this, book one now does reference itself! So book one should really be listed in book two instead. But if she does this, then book one goes back to not referencing itself!
I like it. Much better than the barber one.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
[...] August 22, 2008 by Alexandre Borovik Stolen from Richard Elwes: [...]
August 27th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Similar, but funnier:
http://xkcd.com/468/
July 6th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Some of us even don’t realize the importance of this information. What a pity.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:10 am
I think I will try to recommend this post to my friends and family, cuz it’s really helpful.
September 14th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Thank you much for that good blog post.
February 7th, 2010 at 4:19 pm
Êàê çàðàáîòàòü â èíòåðíåòå…
èíñòðóêöèè ïî çàðàáîòêó â ñåòè…
February 8th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Ïÿòèçâåçäî÷íûå îòåëè Åãèïòà…
Åãèïåò - æåì÷óæèíà ìèðîâîé êóëüòóðû…