Who is the Author of Spamlet? (And Other Thought Experiments)
Dr. Frankenstein creates a creature called Spakesheare that immediately writes a play,Spamlet. Who is the play’s author?
An “intuition pump” is the philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett’s term for a thought-experiment. It usually involves a story that enables you metaphorically to think through a bigger problem. Dennett works through a number of these thought-experiments in his new book Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking.
Dennett will be appearing in Big Think’s studio on Wednesday. So now is your chance to submit questions for the interview.
In the meantime, get your brain pumping with this thought experiment:
Dr. Frankenstein creates a creature called Spakesheare that immediately writes a play, Spamlet. Who is the play’s author?
