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The Gleichnis of Buridans donkey shows the impossibility of a logical decision between two equivalent solutions.
A donkey stands between two heaps of hay equal in size and equivalent far removed. It verhungert finally, because it cannot decide, which it first to eat is.
The Gleichnis is attributed falsely to Johannes Buridan. The argument originates from Aristoteles' "De caelo" (over the sky). With Aristoteles it is a dog, which must decide between two meals. Buridan extended the dilemma, by giving the possibility to the dogs to decide not immediately. The Gleichnis of the donkey was coined/shaped by its opponents.
There are solutions for the problem for example, by changing the evaluation, so that two heaps of hay are no longer equivalent. So one can make through cubes (Monte Carlo method) a decision.
The Gleichnis of Buridans donkey was often used in the literature as motive. Thus there is the novel "Buridans donkey" from de Bruyn. Often it concerns a triangle dear relationship, with which a decision between two partners falls heavily.
In Science Fiction novels or narrations the Gleichnis is used, in order to neutralize robots, which do not act accordingly no more their order. They are forced to a decision between two equivalent possibilities, which use their resources, so that they cannot finally act outward to no more (negatively).
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