How come there are no fortunes in fortune cookies?
There is if you have the vision to see it.
~BCX~
An 11 year old pointed out to me that what is in fortune cookies are actually statements.
I was slightly surprised to see the BCX won that philosophical exchange handily IMO. Impressed.
On the face of it, yes they are only statements and quite cheap to produce. But this ignores how knowledge is formed. BCX's reply eloquently captured Taleb's and my theories about the formulation of value (via knowledge). It is the (long-tail) chance meeting of information that causes symbiosis and genesis.
Nobody won or lost, merely a chance meeting of information.
No matter what answer BCX gave my response would have been the same.
He could have replied having used the definition of fortune being wealth. He did give a good answer.
Another way to knowledge is not to take things for granted and to look at the world and everything you do with fresh eyes. Children do this and most adults lose this.
Why did I even ask what seems like a meaningless question out of the blue?
If one views "winning" a philosophical exchange as a thing at all, wouldn't the winner would be the one that is learning something new?
Engaging in philosophy for one's ego gratification from being right, would be playing that game with a significant handicap.