There is a game which is played by those unlucky enough to be duped into it called "The Game". There are 3 simple rules to The Game:

1. Knowledge of The Game is the only thing required to play it (whoops, shouldn't have read this!!).
2. If you think about The Game, you lose.
3. If you lose The Game, you must announce it to anyone else who also plays.

Can you ever win The Game?

No, for two reasons. One, because of the paradox - as soon as one person loses, he must make everyone else lose by announcing his loss, and thus making others think of the game.

There are ways around this, though. It sort of depends on your definition of knowledge, and whether or not it includes understanding. Because if it doesn't, a person who knows of the game but has no understanding of it won't lose when another's loss is announced.

However, there is a better reason why you can never win - there is no win condition! No part of the game says that you'll win at any point. Therefore, winning is an unreachable goal.
If you define winning as not losing, then every player wins as soon as he starts playing. That's rather silly. If you define winning as never losing, then there's another reason you can never win - you can't play 'forever'.

Edited on December 14, 2006, 1:18 pm

Posted by TamTam on 2006-12-14 13:17:07