The Hard Problem

[Count Lucanor]

Can you agree that what determines what is the hardest question or the easy questions is not whether a solution is known or not? They are simply the hard or easy questions for other reasons not stated in the problem, right?

But if the reasons are not stated then it makes the problem even more confusing and on top of that, reasons differ from person to person.

Besides the previous question which I asked you to agree or not, would you agree that you have not stated the reasons why the questions are considered hard or easy? If you disagree, can you at least agree to point out which are the reasons that make the questions considered hard or easy?

[Sculptor1]

Person = Ø
Hard Question = x = Hardest Question
Easy Question = y = every question other than x

• Suppose that Ø knows the answer to x but doesn’t know the answer y.
  Once Ø solves x, the second hardest question becomes x.
  Since Ø knows x’s answer, x is easy for him.
  But since Ø doesn’t know any y, Ø doesn’t know anything.

So, no question is hard and every question is easy, right?

This is rubbish.
From the initial start x= the hardest question to which Ø knows the answer.
y= every other question not x.
Just because x is solved does not make y=x. y is still every other question.
The fact that remians is the Ø knows x, and not y.

[LuckyR]

If a group decides what is x, but a different individual knows x but doesn't know y, then from that individual's perspective, x was not x, it was an example of y all along, and if that person would have been a member of the labeling group, that question would never have been selected to be x, it would have been one of the y's. Something else would have been x.

Let me explain again.

Consider a universe where the only organism is Ø and he has a set of questions. Ø knows the answer to the hardest question and doesn't know the answer to any other 'easy'(easy means all the questions other than the one which is hardest at the moment in the set) questions. ----- equation 1

Since Ø knows the solution(it doesn't matter how he gets these solutions) to the hardest question(hardest question means the question that is the hardest at the moment), it is 'easy' for him/her. But since he/she doesn't know the answer to any 'easy' question, he shouldn't know the answer to that question. But it is the hardest question, so he should know the answer to it, but he doesn't! Here is the paradox.

Let me explain again.

"Hardest" is a relative not an absolute term, in the sense that the definition is specifically related to the ability of a question to be solved. In your universe of one, 100% of the inhabitants know the answer to x, therefore it CANNOT be the hardest question in that universe. I was being generous by supposing that your scenario had problems of perspective (because I am a generous person), others would call out the central logical flaw in the OP and be done with it.

Again, to be generous, perhaps you are using "hardest" when you mean: "complicated".