[15] Alfred Jarry and Edsger W. Dijkstra

to Schaffer El Dedos.

It is a common opinion, among those who have traveled the proverbial path of excess, that the palace of Wisdom can only resemble either an absinthe-filled whorehouse or a physics lab.

Perhaps less obvious is the equivalence of the two options —at least when real professionals are involved— in defense of which I present the following parallel between Libertine glory Alfred Jarry and CS hero Edsger W. Dijkstra, on the topic of Certainty:

Jarry - Discussing principles of "Pataphysics"

http://faustroll.lineaments.net/ (free in french) or Amazon (english)

If you let a coin fall and it falls, the next time it is just by an infinite coincidence that it will fall again the same way; hundreds of other coins on other hands will follow this pattern in an infinitely unimaginable fashion.

Dijkstra - From "A position paper on Fairness"

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/ewd10xx/EWD1013.PDF

[...] With a perfectly fair roulette it is possible that each time he turns the roulette and throws the ball, the ball will end up at zero. Unlikely, but perfectly possible. [...] The dissatisfied customer can still try to sue the roulette manufacturer, not because he has been cheated by the latter but only on account of the very high probability that he has done so. In a case like that, the conscientious judge can give the roulette manufacturer only a probabilistic fine; whether or not it should be paid can be settled by the roulette in question.

Fabio Arciniegas A., Taipei Taiwan September 2009