(philosophy) A thought experiment, asking, "if a man born blind can feel the differences between shapes such as spheres and cubes, could he, if given the ability to see, distinguish those objects by sight alone, in reference to the tactile schemata he already possessed?"

A type of thought experiment in ethics and psychology, involving ethical dilemmas of whether to sacrifice one person to save a larger number.

(computing) The problem of how to create a superintelligent AI whose values would align with the interests of humankind.

(geometry) The mathematical problem of determining the set of numbers that can be Heesch numbers.

present participle of problem-solve

(sciences) A simplified problem with clear constraints and parameters, usually used as a tool to understand a related real-world problem.

(mathematics, mathematical analysis) For a given m-order partial differential equation, the problem of finding a solution function u on ℝⁿ that satisfies the boundary conditions that, for a smooth manifold S⊂ℝⁿ, u(x)=f_0(x) and (∂ᵏu(x))/(∂nᵏ)=f_k(x), ∀x∈S, k=1…m-1, given specified functions f_k defined on, and vector n normal to, the manifold.

A communication problem where a person seeking help (for example, from a computing helpdesk) provides misleadingly incomplete information about the source of the problem and thus receives inaccurate or unhelpful suggestions about how to fix it.

The problem that the meanings of symbols cannot be grounded, but require more symbols to explain them.

(philosophy) the philosophical problem involving our ethical obligations to future persons which derives from the observation that different courses of action will result in entirely different, or nonidentical, persons coming to be.