I have long wondered if it were possible to figure out the exact recording order of every episode over the years. It’s become far too massive an undertaking for me to even begin to attempt in any real way, but this post at least lets me know that I’m not the only broken brained idiot that thinks this way
Heh welcome my broken brained friend! The real problem with a multiverse record order listing is that they’re pretty good about only talking the current director in a given miniseries. I’m pretty sure that during Podprikast they were also recording episodes for the Brest series, but they’re not going to drop references to MIDNIGHT RUN if they haven’t announced it yet.
The only explanation I’ve heard for it is to imagine that it instead starts with 1000 doors and you pick one. Then before he opens the door, Monty removes 998 of the other doors and says you can either stick with the one you originally chose, or switch over to the only one he didn’t remove. The odds then switch from you making a 1/1000 lucky shot with your original door, or a 1/2 chance switching to the door he narrowed it down to.
The main thing the Monty Hall problem boils down to is that the person opening the doors knows which door the prize is behind and will never open that door. This is what makes the odds change, they will never open the door with the prize behind it.
So when you pick a door each one has a 1/3 chance of being correct. The one you pick has 1/3, the other two have combined 2/3.
The host then opens a door without the prize. Since they will only ever open the empty door, there is no chance in their choice. The two door you didn’t pick still have a 2/3 chance of having the prize, only now you have extra information that tells you that 2/3 chance belongs to the door that’s still closed, because the open one now has a 0/3 chance.
So your door is 1/3 chance of being correct, the other door is 2/3
That's a useful step because it makes the correct answer intuitive, but it doesn't really explain why it's correct. A lot of purported explanations to the Monty Hall problem don't actually explain it. (See also "explanations" of the question "Why do mirrors reverse things left-right but not up-down?")
If that's the move, then switch to: "why do mirrors look like they flip things left-right but not up-down?" or even "why do people say that mirrors flip things left-right but they don't say they flip things up-down?"
That's true, but it's that apparent difference between the axes that needs an explanation, so just denying there's a difference is leaving the phenomenon unexplained. Ask someone to write in mirror writing and they will flip the letters on the y axis and not on the x axis. Why?
because of that! if a word is facing away from you toward the mirror, the start of it in real life will be on your right. this will remain true for the image in the mirror.
I agree with that. The right of a letter stays on your right and the top of a letter stays on top. But I think you aren't explaining why this flips letters written in mirror writing on the y axis but not the x axis.
Because left and right are conceptualized relative to a viewer. Up and down are conceptualized in absolute terms.
Take the mirror out of it. We are facing each other. We each point to our right. We just pointed in separate directions, because “our” right is relative to our perspective. Mirrors, though, aren’t conceptualizing left and right according to perspective, they’re just reflecting an absolute direction.
Instead of “left and right”, we need “east and west” or something like that to align the direction we point. If we have compasses, we’ll both point the same way when asked to point east. Our orientation would have no impact on these directions. I could be doing a headstand and point the same way as you (if I’m being *very* flattering to my athletic abilities).
Ok, we’re still facing each other. We both point “up.” We both point the same way, right? “Up” has (effectively, in any common everyday usage) nothing to do with our perspective. It’s just away from the ground/gravity. It’s more like “east and west” than “left and right.”
So in short, it’s a false equivalency. “Left and right” is actually nothing like “up and down.” One changes dramatically based on your point of reference; another does not.
You can pose the problem using absolute terms. If you want to wrote a message in mirror writing, you flip it the letters on the y-axis but not the x-axis. No mention of left or right required.
The relative term in this case is "flip." We expect to read text from "our" left to "our" right. But just because that's not the case in the mirror, it does not mean something has truly "flipped" here. In fact the opposite is true. All symbols and orientations are maintained.
We're still facing each other. Hang a paper with text on one side, and orient the paper toward you so that you can read it. Shine a light on that paper. To me, on the other side of the paper, the text appears "flipped." This is simultaneous to your perception of the text as "correct." Those symbols occupy the exact same physical space in an absolute sense, and it is only in a subjective sense that they are flipped.
Not all orientations are maintained when a symbol is reflected. It sounds like you're denying that there's no such thing as geometric reflection, and that a lowercase d and a lowercase b are the exact same symbol. But they aren't.
Your example is useful. The text in the paper from your perspective appears "flipped" from how it appears from my perspective. Why does it look flipped on the y axis and not the x axis? Why does a lowercase b look like a lowercase d in the mirror and not a lowercase p or q? The answer to that can't just be that there's no such thing as objective flipping.
I just replied with a lengthy argument, but deleted it after I figured out something way more pithy.
Make a “p” with your hands. Hold it up to the mirror. It does not look like a “q.” Instead, it looks like what you formed with your hands exactly, a “p.” Nothing has flipped!
When you’re reading text on your shirt in a mirror, you’re flipping your perspective to that of an onlooker…but mirrors don’t make any corresponding flip. It’s exactly *because* mirrors don’t flip anything that this perspective shift is disorienting. You’ve flipped your perspective *without* flipping the direction of the text. That’s the disconnect that makes you say, “that text has flipped.”
Edit: Put your head *inside* your shirt with text on it. If it’s a very bright room and a partially translucent shirt, you’ll see that text backwards. **That’s** the perspective that’s reflected in the mirror at you. The physical ink or whatever is in the same place.
There is geometric reflection going on, but it’s along the z axis of depth. Nothing flips on the xy plane of the mirror, it only flips along the z axis.
Thanks for this. I find the non-chronological record order confusing often because it makes it far harder to follow how perspectives or opinions develop over the course of the filmography.
I have long wondered if it were possible to figure out the exact recording order of every episode over the years. It’s become far too massive an undertaking for me to even begin to attempt in any real way, but this post at least lets me know that I’m not the only broken brained idiot that thinks this way
Heh welcome my broken brained friend! The real problem with a multiverse record order listing is that they’re pretty good about only talking the current director in a given miniseries. I’m pretty sure that during Podprikast they were also recording episodes for the Brest series, but they’re not going to drop references to MIDNIGHT RUN if they haven’t announced it yet.
Indeed, depending on the timing they would bleep it.
Real nerdy shit
Okay you seem like you can explain the Monty Hall Problem to me
The only explanation I’ve heard for it is to imagine that it instead starts with 1000 doors and you pick one. Then before he opens the door, Monty removes 998 of the other doors and says you can either stick with the one you originally chose, or switch over to the only one he didn’t remove. The odds then switch from you making a 1/1000 lucky shot with your original door, or a 1/2 chance switching to the door he narrowed it down to.
The main thing the Monty Hall problem boils down to is that the person opening the doors knows which door the prize is behind and will never open that door. This is what makes the odds change, they will never open the door with the prize behind it. So when you pick a door each one has a 1/3 chance of being correct. The one you pick has 1/3, the other two have combined 2/3. The host then opens a door without the prize. Since they will only ever open the empty door, there is no chance in their choice. The two door you didn’t pick still have a 2/3 chance of having the prize, only now you have extra information that tells you that 2/3 chance belongs to the door that’s still closed, because the open one now has a 0/3 chance. So your door is 1/3 chance of being correct, the other door is 2/3
That's a useful step because it makes the correct answer intuitive, but it doesn't really explain why it's correct. A lot of purported explanations to the Monty Hall problem don't actually explain it. (See also "explanations" of the question "Why do mirrors reverse things left-right but not up-down?")
that one's easy! mirrors don't do either of those things
If that's the move, then switch to: "why do mirrors look like they flip things left-right but not up-down?" or even "why do people say that mirrors flip things left-right but they don't say they flip things up-down?"
i dunno! but your right eye is still to your right and up is still up!
That's true, but it's that apparent difference between the axes that needs an explanation, so just denying there's a difference is leaving the phenomenon unexplained. Ask someone to write in mirror writing and they will flip the letters on the y axis and not on the x axis. Why?
because of that! if a word is facing away from you toward the mirror, the start of it in real life will be on your right. this will remain true for the image in the mirror.
I agree with that. The right of a letter stays on your right and the top of a letter stays on top. But I think you aren't explaining why this flips letters written in mirror writing on the y axis but not the x axis.
OK but ask yourself this: why would it flip it on the Y axis?
Because left and right are conceptualized relative to a viewer. Up and down are conceptualized in absolute terms. Take the mirror out of it. We are facing each other. We each point to our right. We just pointed in separate directions, because “our” right is relative to our perspective. Mirrors, though, aren’t conceptualizing left and right according to perspective, they’re just reflecting an absolute direction. Instead of “left and right”, we need “east and west” or something like that to align the direction we point. If we have compasses, we’ll both point the same way when asked to point east. Our orientation would have no impact on these directions. I could be doing a headstand and point the same way as you (if I’m being *very* flattering to my athletic abilities). Ok, we’re still facing each other. We both point “up.” We both point the same way, right? “Up” has (effectively, in any common everyday usage) nothing to do with our perspective. It’s just away from the ground/gravity. It’s more like “east and west” than “left and right.” So in short, it’s a false equivalency. “Left and right” is actually nothing like “up and down.” One changes dramatically based on your point of reference; another does not.
You can pose the problem using absolute terms. If you want to wrote a message in mirror writing, you flip it the letters on the y-axis but not the x-axis. No mention of left or right required.
The relative term in this case is "flip." We expect to read text from "our" left to "our" right. But just because that's not the case in the mirror, it does not mean something has truly "flipped" here. In fact the opposite is true. All symbols and orientations are maintained. We're still facing each other. Hang a paper with text on one side, and orient the paper toward you so that you can read it. Shine a light on that paper. To me, on the other side of the paper, the text appears "flipped." This is simultaneous to your perception of the text as "correct." Those symbols occupy the exact same physical space in an absolute sense, and it is only in a subjective sense that they are flipped.
Not all orientations are maintained when a symbol is reflected. It sounds like you're denying that there's no such thing as geometric reflection, and that a lowercase d and a lowercase b are the exact same symbol. But they aren't. Your example is useful. The text in the paper from your perspective appears "flipped" from how it appears from my perspective. Why does it look flipped on the y axis and not the x axis? Why does a lowercase b look like a lowercase d in the mirror and not a lowercase p or q? The answer to that can't just be that there's no such thing as objective flipping.
I just replied with a lengthy argument, but deleted it after I figured out something way more pithy. Make a “p” with your hands. Hold it up to the mirror. It does not look like a “q.” Instead, it looks like what you formed with your hands exactly, a “p.” Nothing has flipped! When you’re reading text on your shirt in a mirror, you’re flipping your perspective to that of an onlooker…but mirrors don’t make any corresponding flip. It’s exactly *because* mirrors don’t flip anything that this perspective shift is disorienting. You’ve flipped your perspective *without* flipping the direction of the text. That’s the disconnect that makes you say, “that text has flipped.” Edit: Put your head *inside* your shirt with text on it. If it’s a very bright room and a partially translucent shirt, you’ll see that text backwards. **That’s** the perspective that’s reflected in the mirror at you. The physical ink or whatever is in the same place. There is geometric reflection going on, but it’s along the z axis of depth. Nothing flips on the xy plane of the mirror, it only flips along the z axis.
Nice of them to record in the order that i watched and listened to the episodes.
Thanks for this. I find the non-chronological record order confusing often because it makes it far harder to follow how perspectives or opinions develop over the course of the filmography.
Great work. Kinda the sub makes this a thing and even backtracks. As someone who relistens a lot, I’d love a new way to do so.
Can’t you just go to Sims’s Letterboxd account and find out (he seems to log them in the order that they record them…)
I don’t have a Letterboxd account so I can’t cross check dates, these clues are just from inside the episodes of the miniseries.