eth_trader_12 OP t1_itsfkc8 wrote
Reply to comment by Coomb in How does one figure out what probability is most relevant when deciding how probable something is? by eth_trader_12
That’s what you’re confusing. Looking at the specific probability of Juliet winning the lottery twice does increase the probability that it is rigged, just perhaps not enough. The only reason many consider it still not rigged is because of prior probabiltiies: the vast majority of lotteries in history have been fair; very few have been rigged.
But now imagine as if half of all lotteries were fair and half were all rigged. Let’s assume 10,000 tickets and 10,000 people. Let’s now look at the first case the other commenter mentioned: Juliet won the lottery once. The prior probabiltiies are the same for rigged and fair so they can be ignored. We now look at the likelihoods. The probability of Juliet winning the lottery given a fair lottery is 1 in 10k. The probability of Juliet winning the lottery given a rigged lottery is ALSO 1 in 10k (given others could have rigged it). Fair lottery is equally as likely as a rigged one.
Now, let’s assume Juliet won the lottery twice. The priors are again the same so let’s look at the likelihoods. The probability of Juliet winning two lotteries given chance is (1/10k*1/10k). The probability of Juliet winning two lotteries given that it’s rigged is 1/10k (1 out of 10k people could have rigged it twice). Now, the rigged lottery is MORE likely. Note that if we looked at the more generic description of SOMEONE winning the lottery twice, the likelihood of SOMEONE winning the lottery back to back would be 1…given enough time. But the likelihood of SOMEONE winning the lottery back to back given its rigged..is also 1. Now we must conclude they’re equally likely, but that’s not accurate.
As you can see; looking at specifics seems to work better.
pucklermuskau t1_itv0hxz wrote
what difference does it make that you know her name?
eth_trader_12 OP t1_itvas30 wrote
It doesn’t. You missed the entire point of the example. Even if I didn’t know her name, I would know that a specific person won it, and the math would be the same.
The math would be different only if I knew that someone at some time won two lotteries, not at a specific time. The time is what’s relevant here
pucklermuskau t1_itvbekr wrote
in all examples that are being discussed, those that you're strangely dismissing, we are assuming that the same person has won twice in a row. you're misunderstanding the argument.
[deleted] t1_itvxksv wrote
[removed]
Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments