Ancient gods are particularly good at creating problems for others. Apollo, one of the most powerful Greek gods, fell in love with Cassandra, the daughter of Trojan king Priam. Apollo seduced the girl by promising that he would teach her the art of prophecy. Having learnt the art, Cassandra rejected him. Angry Appollo, unable to take back her knowledge, decided to put a curse on it, by declaring that Cassandra's prophecies will never be accepted or believed.
As a result, Cassandra's last tragic prophecy that Troy will be destroyed by the Greeks fell on deaf ears of her compatriots. According to the legend, during the sack of the city, which she so perfectly predicted, Cassandra, the daughter of a Trojan king, was captured, raped, and then killed by an ordinary Greek soldier.
Showing posts with label pcp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pcp. Show all posts
Friday, June 12, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Problem creation problem
There seems to exist a whole class of problems, in which solution involves creation of an unsolvable problem for one's opponent. As an example, here's how in the 9th century two enterprising Venetian merchants fooled Alexandria port officials and smuggled Saint Mark's body out of Egypt:
As we can see, the solution to the smugglers' problem was to make it impossible for the port officials to inspect the ship. Using our "inventorese" language, we can say that the merchants achieved their goal by preventing their opponents from solving a detection problem.
Given that the vast majority of such problems are solved by applying the Separation Principles, problem creation problems must have a solution based on certain anti-Separation Principles. In other words, to create a problem for an opponent, one should find a way to bundle useful and harmful functions. In the case of the stinking St.Mark's body, the useful function, from the Alexandrian official's point of view, was the highly detectable odour of the body. To neutralize this useful function, the two Venetian merchants bundled it with an extremely harmful (for the official's) function - untouchable pig carcasses. As the result, the officials became incapable of detecting St Mark's body, despite its highly conspicious odour.
...two Venetian merchants returned from Egypt with a corpse which they claimed to be that of the Evangelist (St Mark), stolen from his Alexandrian tomb.
...[as the body was sitting on a Venetian ship in Alexandria's harbor] the odour of sanctity that issued from the body was becoming so strong that, in the words of one chronicler, 'If all the spices of the world had been gathered together in Alexandria, they could not have so perfumed the city.' Suspicions were understandably aroused, and local officials arrived to search the ship; but the Venetians had covered their prize with quantities of pork, at the first sight of which the officials, pious Muslims to a man, cried 'Kanzir, kanzir!' - 'Pig, pig!' - and fled in horror. -- A History of Venice, by John Julius Norwich. ISBN 0-679-72197-5. p.29.
...[as the body was sitting on a Venetian ship in Alexandria's harbor] the odour of sanctity that issued from the body was becoming so strong that, in the words of one chronicler, 'If all the spices of the world had been gathered together in Alexandria, they could not have so perfumed the city.' Suspicions were understandably aroused, and local officials arrived to search the ship; but the Venetians had covered their prize with quantities of pork, at the first sight of which the officials, pious Muslims to a man, cried 'Kanzir, kanzir!' - 'Pig, pig!' - and fled in horror. -- A History of Venice, by John Julius Norwich. ISBN 0-679-72197-5. p.29.
As we can see, the solution to the smugglers' problem was to make it impossible for the port officials to inspect the ship. Using our "inventorese" language, we can say that the merchants achieved their goal by preventing their opponents from solving a detection problem.
Given that the vast majority of such problems are solved by applying the Separation Principles, problem creation problems must have a solution based on certain anti-Separation Principles. In other words, to create a problem for an opponent, one should find a way to bundle useful and harmful functions. In the case of the stinking St.Mark's body, the useful function, from the Alexandrian official's point of view, was the highly detectable odour of the body. To neutralize this useful function, the two Venetian merchants bundled it with an extremely harmful (for the official's) function - untouchable pig carcasses. As the result, the officials became incapable of detecting St Mark's body, despite its highly conspicious odour.
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