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Comment by passion__desire | Hacker News Reader

Reminds me of Gettier Problems in Epistemology :

A desert traveller is searching for water. He sees, in the valley ahead, a shimmering blue expanse. Unfortunately, it’s a mirage. But fortunately, when he reaches the spot where there appeared to be water, there actually is water, hidden under a rock. Did the traveller know, as he stood on the hilltop hallucinating, that there was water ahead?

Here's a real world example :

https://www.instagram.com/p/CzWlxkbp0vT/

Imagine a video feedback loop version of gettier problem where the problem is resolved only at the Nth nested level.

Sort of like this short story : https://qntm.org/responsibility

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Once I changed half my working code ( and wasted an Hour of time ) before realising that I was testing different code. On the other hand, now newer code had 10 times more testing points.

I'm going to say no, he didn't know. But I don't think I can properly articulate why which just get me into trouble with an even more nuanced variant of that question.

Let me illustrate a probable story which might muddy the waters and expand the surface area of belief.

Consider a woman whose child is suffering from a disease. She has gone to all the doctors she was recommended and found no success. She is told to visit Church and pray to Jesus. After the sunday mass, she tells her story to few random church goers. They immediately recognize the medical condition and tell her to visit a particular doctor. Doctor sees her child and provides medication. Her child is cured after few years. Now the question is did she know going to church would solve her medical problems?

That one is clear to me too, also no. How would she know? No where did you specify that she even thought going to church would solve her problems. She was told to visit church, yes, but there has to be a belief component to "knowing". Did she genuinely believe going to church would solve her medical problems? Hope and desperation don't count either, it has to be a genuine belief. Also, she was told be pray to Jesus. Depending on if you're religious or not you might say that Jesus did cure her, but a pretty strong argument could be made that the church-goers were the key, so even if she did believe Jesus would cure her, if it ends up being something else, then it also doesn't count.

There is clear chain of links : Belief (Jesus solves problems) -> Action (Going to church) -> Finding solution (Other church goers helped her). How is this different than original gettier problem? In original gettier problem, his problem was solved in unexpected ways.

As I see it, there are four quadrants : 2 (action, no action) x 2 (solution, no solution). You can build any story based on outcomes.

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