h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I love this entry - short, concise and very entertaining. I finally know terms for these seldom used concepts! I also totally agree with The Pareto Conjecture as I am a cynic-based lifeform. Ahhhh....

Nice article
shazzPRME

I love it too, but I'm too stupid to think of other examples. So could some of you please do better and keep this interesting line of thought going. Thanx

Mr Cynic,

Surely a cynic would not believe in the Pareto conjecture.

If you do not believe in the PC then you believe that there are situations in which everyone could be made better off[1] but that the world does not take.

If you believe in the PC you presumably hold that the world will never settle down in a position from which everyone can be made (weakly) better off. I sometimes suspect that this is putting too much faith in humanity.

[1] Slightly more correctly at least one person can be made strictly better off and no individual is made worse off.


Zathras

There are situations in which all parties can be made better off.
But ofcourse, one of those parties could have been much better off on their own in some such situation. I am not actually cynical (though some would say otherwise). I am realistic (I think ), and therefore often expect things to go wrong (I slightly follow Murphy's Law). But just because I often expect everything to go wrong doesn't mean that people can't benefit ever!
I am cynical/pessimistic about the future, not the present.
I am also hungry...

Does the Pareto conjecture rule out, then, all possibility of a utopia, or does it simply state that said utopia will not be the ideal situation for any one individual in it?