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A comment on We don't know how the universe began, and we will never know. Parent comment

Re:We don't know how the universe began, and we will never know by ithkuil on Saturday August 27, 2022 @02:48PM (#32621885)
Furthermore there is the complication caused by ambiguous problem statements. In your example, how we define the first human that got to North America? Which immigration wave? What if there were immigration waves that were completely wiped out without leaving any effects of the subsequent populations?

What is the 20th birthday? According to which calendar? (Leap days etc)?

What is lunch? Not every people subdivide their meals in a predictable way that you can pinpoint to what "lunch" is

Etc etc

EDIT: forgot the most obvious: define what counts for human. It's not clear cut to distinguish boundaries between species

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Re:We don't know how the universe began, and we will never know by goldenkey on Saturday August 27, 2022 @04:01PM (#32622607)
Furthermore if a human time travels back to the past and then sets up shop and lives amongst the first humans, maybe they are the first human? Semantics and ambiguity have a way of making unspecific questions paradoxical
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