What is the hardest question?

[ZenRaiden]

Why someone else?

One of me, many of them.

 

[Godofdogs]

*sigh*
take a moment to reflect, and realize how wrong you are. Take a moment to reflect, and think about a world in which everybody, including Wittgenstein, started saying that 150 years ago...
And that is an entirely different topic to our existence being vain/meaningless.

What I stated was not much of a serious statement, anyway. I have lots of new things to think and do.

 

[Rook]

One can just go on asking why to every answer.
Why it is this way?
because this and that.
Why is this and that creates this way?
Because 78 and 98.
Why 78 and 98?
becaues eanklfsdklgfsdkl

We can go on questioning indefinitely especially in matters of universe and all,
ultimately all explanations will run out and one have to accept: It is just 'is'.

That is why it is the most difficult question, because when it is asked we say "It just is", without us knowing the truth.

 

[BigApplePi]

The hardest question is defined by its most accurate answer and how much time it takes to derive that answer.

Okay.

Q: Will it rain on this day next year?

We know Qs about the future are uncertain. Therefore introduce another variable to "hardness", namely statistics. It will rain with P probability on that day and we can improve on that probability as time goes along. This makes the answer not so hard.

 

[Godofdogs]

That is why it is the most difficult question, because when it is asked we say "It just is", without us knowing the truth.

Remember when you were four and discovered how much it pissed your mom off to keep asking 'Why?' Some of them tried to keep answering, but when I was four and found a way to annoy people, there was no fucking stopping me. All aboard the Pain-In-The-Ass Express, motherfuckers, and full speed ahead. Why was that annoying? Because at a certain point, she had to say, "It just is." And when you said "Why?" again, she said, "Because that's how it is," and you made her feel kind of stupid for not knowing. So when you said, "Why?" one more time, she beat your ass and sent you to your room. But it turns out she was right; moms who raise bros are smart fucking ladies. Eventually, justifications come to an end somewhere.

http://www.philosophybro.com/2011/01/wittgensteins-on-certainty-summary.html

It just is because there is no perfect answer only limited answer to satisfy our framework and stuff.

 

[Coolydudey]

Actually, we clearly have a fault in our logic in answering what the hardest question is (as we've answered it, whereas there are other questions we can't answer). What we have answered though is: "what is the hardest question other than this one?". Funny how chopping the end off and saying "what is the hardest question?" makes it unanswerable though...

edit: the above assuming we're excluding unanswerable questions though, for good I think reasons

Apologies, logic error.

The answer to "what is the hardest question?" is: "what is the hardest question other than this?".

 

[Base groove]

Found it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMx6NJjXPOw

 

[BigApplePi]

These Qs are all too easy and I've never found it so hard to see why no one can see that.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

One can just go on asking why to every answer.
Why it is this way?
because this and that.
Why is this and that creates this way?
Because 78 and 98.
Why 78 and 98?
becaues eanklfsdklgfsdkl

We can go on questioning indefinitely especially in matters of universe and all,
ultimately all explanations will run out and one have to accept: It is just 'is'.

:It just is: doesn't help you understand or develop a warp drive and is quite useless after understanding why it can be used as a possible answer, but not as a possible right answer. You could as well say, because I don't know, or because you are not Eisentruf.

Again, why is superior.

 

[Variform]

How to be in the world.

 

[Godofdogs]

:It just is: doesn't help you understand or develop a warp drive and is quite useless after understanding why it can be used as a possible answer, but not as a possible right answer. You could as well say, because I don't know, or because you are not Eisentruf.

Again, why is superior.

Why can lead to deeper understanding to some systems.
It can give us some series of answers and with it some understanding.
But in the end there is only one explanation possible, only one, and that is no explanation, there is no perfect explanation. There is no perfect answer, so man have to deal with imperfect ones. Thats the only way. This is not about what help you understanding or what not, it is about the ultimate truth, what is the final justification? The final justification if it itself can not be justified the only answer remains that is no answer.

 

[Godofdogs]

How to be in the world.

Seeking the self, knowing the illusion, cutting off ties with it, and being free.
Sufferings arise from identification with names and forms. By cutting of the misindetifications one can live.

 

[RadicalDreamer31]

How is babby formed? How is babby formed?

Millennium Prize Problems Here you go!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Prize_Problems

 

[DelusiveNinja]

The answer to "what is the hardest question?" is: "what is the hardest question other than this?".

Shouldn't you have stated that the correct answer to the question "What is the hardest question?" is the question "What is the hardest question?"

Why did you say that the answer is "What is the hardest question other than this?"

Spoiler

The initial question "What is the hardest question?" beckons the person seeking the correct answer to review how much time it took to derive a correct answer to all precedent questions. Upon trying to complete the daunting task of reviewing all other intelligible questions and their correct answers in order to find out how much time it took to conceive the correct answer, the inquisitor will realize, at some point in time, that the question "What is the hardest question?" takes the most time to answer. This leads him to the conclusion that "What is the hardest question?" is the hardest question.

If he is to ask, "What is the hardest question other than this?" after having answered the question "What is the hardest question?", he would go through the same exact process of reviewing how long it took to answer all precedent questions, only to determine that "What is the hardest question other than this?" will take the same amount of time to correctly answer as the question "What is the hardest question?" Leading the inquisitor to conclude that the question "What is the hardest question?" has the same difficulty as "What is the hardest question other than this?" because of how much time it took to answer these questions correctly.

Doesn't the amount of time it takes to answer a question vary from person to person?

How do we know the answer to a question that is impossible to accurately answer without determining the average amount of time it takes to correctly answer all precedent questions and comparing those times against themselves to determine the longest time period?

Logic? Are we able to answer this question without validating our answer as correct by through going through the horrifying review process because of logic? Or is this a prediction also? Did we simply create a theoretical scenario where a person supposedly goes through the hard work of answering this question correctly?

I also wonder if this is the true answer. I know that I am very narrow minded (Ni-Ti loop) when I start to grasp a perspective. Is there another way to view the answer to the question: "What is the hardest question?

 

[Hawkeye]

Would you rather have legs made of cheese, or a loaf of bread for a head?

 

[Coolydudey]

Shouldn't you have stated that the correct answer to the question "What is the hardest question?" is the question "What is the hardest question?"

Why did you say that the answer is "What is the hardest question other than this?"

Spoiler

The initial question "What is the hardest question?" beckons the person seeking the correct answer to review how much time it took to derive a correct answer to all precedent questions. Upon trying to complete the daunting task of reviewing all other intelligible questions and their correct answers in order to find out how much time it took to conceive the correct answer, the inquisitor will realize, at some point in time, that the question "What is the hardest question?" takes the most time to answer. This leads him to the conclusion that "What is the hardest question?" is the hardest question.

If he is to ask, "What is the hardest question other than this?" after having answered the question "What is the hardest question?", he would go through the same exact process of reviewing how long it took to answer all precedent questions, only to determine that "What is the hardest question other than this?" will take the same amount of time to correctly answer as the question "What is the hardest question?" Leading the inquisitor to conclude that the question "What is the hardest question?" has the same difficulty as "What is the hardest question other than this?" because of how much time it took to answer these questions correctly.

Doesn't the amount of time it takes to answer a question vary from person to person?

How do we know the answer to a question that is impossible to accurately answer without determining the average amount of time it takes to correctly answer all precedent questions and comparing those times against themselves to determine the longest time period?

Logic? Are we able to answer this question without validating our answer as correct by through going through the horrifying review process because of logic? Or is this a prediction also? Did we simply create a theoretical scenario where a person supposedly goes through the hard work of answering this question correctly?

I also wonder if this is the true answer. I know that I am very narrow minded (Ni-Ti loop) when I start to grasp a perspective. Is there another way to view the answer to the question: "What is the hardest question?

You could say that the answer is "what is the hardest question?", but then you've just answered it, i.e. it was easy to answer, i.e. it was the wrong answer, because there are questions which are obviously much harder to answer.

 

[BigApplePi]

Would you rather have legs made of cheese, or a loaf of bread for a head?

I'd rather have legs made of cheese. Then I could use my head to make a sandwich.

 

[BigApplePi]

There is no hardest Q.

Proof: Let A be the hardest Q. Let B be a hard Q which is different from A. Define C = A + B. Then C is harder to answer than A because both have to be answered. This contradicts A being the hardest Q.

Q.E.D. by reduction to absurdity.

 

[Coolydudey]

There is no hardest Q.

Proof: Let A be the hardest Q. Let B be a hard Q which is different from A. Define C = A + B. Then C is harder to answer than A because both have to be answered. This contradicts A being the hardest Q.

Q.E.D. by reduction to absurdity.

there's an error in your logic.... if A already requires B to be answered ("what is the hardest question other than this one?"), then C=A+B=A, so A is still the hardest Q.

 

[DelusiveNinja]

You could say that the answer is "what is the hardest question?", but then you've just answered it, i.e. it was easy to answer, i.e. it was the wrong answer, because there are questions which are obviously much harder to answer.

I could even see an inter-gallactic war for the sake of answering this question, after which there would be no civilisation powerful enough to even restore the knowledge to the sufficient level, with the entropy and heat death as an upper bound for the possible maximal time window.

That is where this is headed.

 

[BigApplePi]

there's an error in your logic.... if A already requires B to be answered ("what is the hardest question other than this one?"), then C=A+B=A, so A is still the hardest Q.

"What is the hardest question other than this one?" presupposes there is such a thing. So does asking "What is the hardest question?"

One cannot assume something exists to show something else exists and then say the something else exists. It's like saying, if unicorns exist I can ride them. Therefore I can ride unicorns.

 

[Coolydudey]

"What is the hardest question other than this one?" presupposes there is such a thing. So does asking "What is the hardest question?"

One cannot assume something exists to show something else exists and then say the something else exists. It's like saying, if unicorns exist I can ride them. Therefore I can ride unicorns.

Well, you could say there isn't one. But we could create a scale to rank questions (a subjective one). The only case this would fail would be if we could have arbitrarily hard questions. Disallowing questions that couldn't be answered before the heat death of the universe would hence be a way of dealing with this issue. Then our question can only be answered just before the heat death of the universe, the last question ever answered. Cool thought eh?

 

[Prion]

My greatest questions are: "why do I have the will to live rather than not?"

And simply, ethics. "how should I act?" and "how should others act?" It may seem odd, but this is one of the hardest questions for me. Utilitarianism makes rational sense, but it defies nearly every instinct that tells me I need to survive no matter how much pain it causes others, and I will still crush a spider if I see it in my room . If I then say that ethics is purely relative on personal emotion, I am no longer able to criticize the actions of others. I wouldn't be able to say Hitler shouldn't have killed so many people because it caused unnecessary pain. Because of this, I have given up on thinking about ethics completely.

 

[Hawkeye]

Here's one for you:

What is the exact value of the first digit of Graham's Number?

 

[BigApplePi]

Here's one for you:

What is the exact value of the first digit of Graham's Number?

According to Wiki the last digits are ... 2464195387 but I didn't check their work. I did come up with the first digit though and since you didn't specify which number system I'm using binary. The first digit is one. Please check my work. Harder would be, what is the 2nd digit?

Oh. I forgot. My answer is exact.

 

[nexion]

The number of questions that can be asked is not finite.

 

[BigApplePi]

The number of questions that can be asked is not finite.

Then ya better start asking them right now lest you run out of time.

 

[RandomCh33se]

Why?

 

[david251]

Pinochio says: "My nose will grow now".

Will Pinochio's nose grow?

?

 

[CrimsonCrush]

How to get along with someone when you don't.