Talk:Exotic probability

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VfD vote - removed April 22 2004 - no consensus to delete

Can you give cites for the topics in this article, please? Many of the terms used in it cannot be found anywhere on the Web. -- The Anome 01:34, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)


This article appears to be somewhat suspicious. Examples:

  • Lawrence M. Krauss is not listed as a Nobel laureate, although he is a real theoretical physicist who wrote a book on the "Physics of Star Trek".
  • The term "Lebesgue Dice" does not occur anywhere in the sense intended in Google's index.
  • Nor does "Manning-McArdle Conjecture".

-- The Anome 08:16, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

It sounds weird, but as weird as many of Feynmann's inventions. I'd rather keep the article but it is really badly written... "is when...". If I have the time I may want to fix it, but do not trust me for it. In any case, things as negative probabilities, etc... have been discussed in academic circles (although I do not know about specific references, but I am not an expert). I took the notice away but put a stub one. Pfortuny 08:29, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Citation for the Gowers paper, please. I'm inclined to treat this as a leg-pull until I'm convinced about that.

Charles Matthews 08:47, 8 Mar 2004 (UTC)

OK, I'm convinced this is a student prank. I say delete.

Charles Matthews 16:20, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

These look like real references to me:

Also my quantum physics is a little sketchy, but one of the references cited is "How much time does a tunneling particle spend in the border region?". I would not, on my own knowledge, rule out the idea that the answer to that question may be negative. Of course, I may be wrong. DJ Clayworth 16:39, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC) DJ Clayworth 16:36, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I have trimmed this down to only material that can be corroborated from the Web. I agree, the original looked like a leg-pull with a smidgen of true material to add confusion. Unless someone can give a cite. -- Anon.

I think the article as it is is a good starting point. Someone knowing about Feynman's ideas might add something more (ideas of which I only have a scent). Pfortuny 20:31, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC)
Delete. Feynman was a Bayesian, as you would expect for a physicist. My recollection from Feynman, is his sentence "Probability is best defined by betting". The red flag is the minor tag from the originator of this article, clearly a student prank. dmn's bogus Weisstein URL is a clear indication of a prank. Ancheta Wis 07:24, 18 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I heard Youssef give a paper at a scientific conference in Santa Fe several years back examining complex probabilites and the theory was treated seriously though not all agreed with the suggestion. I suggest keeping it. Tony Vignaux 07:33, 2004 Mar 18 (UTC)


An older version of this article was re-added to the end of the article; this has already failed to meet the criteria for being included here, as it was prima facie dubious, searches for terms in it came up with nothing, and no cites were given to support the assertions given. Deleted. -- Karada 10:54, 28 May 2004 (UTC)

Just for the record, it's an anonymous ip that changed it back to the nonsense version, and I added the non-nonsense version to the top while going through the ip's questionable edits. Hadn't seen that the ip was actually just reverting to a fake older version (calling it a spelling mistake), or I'd just have reverted completely. Κσυπ Cyp   11:00, 28 May 2004 (UTC)