Re: Lottery tickets
From: Guy Hoelzer (hoelzer_at_unr.edu)
Date: 02/22/05
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Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 01:25:16 -0500 (EST)
in article cvb068$ref$1@darwin.ediacara.org, Jim McGinn at
jimmcginn@yahoo.com wrote on 2/20/05 1:41 PM:
> Perplexed in Peoria wrote:
>> Are winning lottery tickets different from lottery
>> tickets that don't win in terms of their causative
>> properties? Yes, No.
>
> Yes.
I disagree.
>> If they are different in terms of their causative
>> properties what is the PROXIMATE mechanism by which
>> they produce this difference is causative properties?
>
> It is their numbers on the ticket and the arrangement
> thereof that cause lottery officials to deposit large
> sums in the holder's bank account when the ticket is
> presented to the them.
Note that officials do no such thing at the time the numbers are chosen,
because they in fact have no causal relationship with winning. If they did,
then a computer (for example) could deduce whether or not those numbers
would win at the time they were purchased. Instead, it is the fall of ping
pong balls at a later time that initiates the indirect connection between a
set of numbers and winning.
>> I mean, do tickets somehow know whether or not they are
>> winning and act accordingly? How do they know this?
>
> The ticket does not know but the holder can know
> by listening to the media to see if the numbers
> match.
He/she can only know about the association between the numbers and winning
after the numbers are drawn (if the contest is fair), because the connection
does not exist before that moment. Winning tickets and losing tickets DO
NOT differ at the time of purchase.
[snip]
Cheers,
Guy
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