The hungry donkey paradox

Now this is a real paradox...

Imagine a plain room, with white walls, floor and cieling, it is lit by some diffuse light that cant be seen.

A poor old donkey is stuck in the middle, and he is very hungry. Lucky for him there is some hay on the floor. Two piles in fact.

One pile of hay is to the donkey's right, the other to his left, both are equal in size and appear to be exactly the same. They are both equal distances from the donkey, and he has nothing wrong with his legs or eyes.

Will the donkey choose the left or right pile to start eating? Or will he starve to death, because he can't choose?

I would say, if he´s left-handed he would choose the left side and if he´s right handed he would choose the right side. I´m pretty sure that right and left handed also exists when it comes to animals. But I don´t know it for real.

I think it'll eat from both, but which one first ... mmm, totally unknown. If both are exactly similar ... does the donkey see both piles at the exact same time too? It's hungry enough to randomly choose one of both to be able to start eating, his priority is probably not about choosing the best. Perhaps he doesn't notice both piles are infact so similar? Good paradox though,

Cheers

If he's left handed (clawed) he will take a step with he's left leg and be a fraction closer to the left pile, and start there. Or, the same with the right hand side...

edit: hehehe I see fogman said the same thing.

haha. This is what will happen:

Once the donkey notices the piles, its eyes will focus on a certain pile. It wont hover in between them. He'll then go for that one.

I think the donkey dies from suffocation.
"a plain room, with white walls, floor and cieling, it is lit by some diffuse light that cant be seen"

i dont see no windows not anything that suggests fresh air coming in...

Only the the choice the donkey makes is important.. the story is really about a simple idea: that behavior is, at its core, irrational. There is no reason that the donkey would choose the right or left pile.

How do you make a choice if all else is equal?

Well, I don't think it would not decide for one of them. So, there's a 50/50 chance? I am not sure, but if both are equal as good, then there's no point in making a weighted choice, so it's okey to choose whichever the donkey likes most, even if it's purely random. Perhaps a straw of hay points straight towards it and got his attention first, you can't focus on all straws of hay at the same time, so ...

Cheers

since i am right handed i would pick the right stack. simple reason is the approach to it and the fact that i would first grab into the hay (empty rooms, hay stacks.... have seen too many saw movies to igore the obvious ).

so the sollution is simple: it will pick the other one

cheers

There's nothing paradoxical about that. It can't be determined, but he's a donkey... he'll just go to one, eat it, and then move on to the other.

-Rhuarc

But whats makes him choose one or the otehr? Is an animal capable of random thoughts? Is anyone?

Something will make him choose one over the other. If they are both equal, then it could be anything. Maybe his neck itches, so he shakes his head and the first one he sees is to the left. He goes to it.

This is too open ended to provide any kind of satisfying answer. He will choose one, probably not at random (some factor in his brain will cause him to choose one over the other), but he will choose one.

perhaps their is a distinctive smell that one has that the other has... or there is something about the room that causes him to move to one direction or the other and then in turn causes him to eat the hay that he is then closest to..

you cannot from these judgements assume that he is going to eat one way or another..

there is countless possible factors that could lead him to go to one or the other if not eat both or starve himself..

one factor from the many factors could be that his first instinctive move would be to try and escape the room and then after he has tired himself he will then eat the hay that he is closest to

Nick

Assume there there is absolutely no particular stimulus to choose one or the other. The question is, all else being equal, how can an animal choose between one thing or another?

i guess its just the first thing that comes to its head.. apart from let me out of here

you would have to think to yourself...what if it was me in the room and it wasnt hay but another food that us humans eat

If everything is perfectly equal, then yes it will still choose either one of them, the main stimulus of 'being hungry' is still there, so ...

I'm not sure if you can call that random though, maybe he sees the two piles as 'one source of food', when it's equal? Making a choice is only relevant if making that choice would actually matter hehehe, but yes, perhaps that behavior would be the result of a random thought indeed.

Cheers

im hungry

Quote:

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But whats makes him choose one or the otehr? Is an animal capable of random thoughts? Is anyone?

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That isn't a paradox at all. I don't see anything contradicting itself here....

-Rhuarc