Buridan's Principle
The situation of Buridan's ass was given a mathematical basis in a 1984 paper by American computer scientist Leslie Lamport, in which Lamport presents an argument that, given certain assumptions about continuity in a simple mathematical model of the Buridan's ass problem, there will always be some starting conditions under which the ass will starve to death, no matter what strategy it takes.
Lamport calls this result Buridan’s principle, and states it as:
- A discrete decision based upon an input having a continuous range of values cannot be made within a bounded length of time.
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