The Paradox Portal
Philosophical

Lottery Paradox

You believe each ticket will lose, but one must win

Overview

A paradox about rational belief in probabilistic situations.

In a fair million-ticket lottery, you rationally believe ticket 1 will lose (probability 0.999999). Same for ticket 2, 3, etc. So you believe all tickets will lose. But you also know one ticket must win - a contradiction.

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