Thought experiments

demons

• Laplace's demon (physics)
• Maxwell's demon (physics)
• Desecartes' demon (philosophy)
• Socrates' demon (philosophy)
• Bergson's Demon (philosophy)
• Compton's Demon (philosophy)
• William James' Demon (philosophy)
• Frankfurt's Demon (philosophy)
• Landé's Demon (physics)
• Lewis' Demon (philosophy)
• Loschmidt's Demon (physics)
• Nietzsche's Demon (philosophy)
• Popper's Demon (???)
• Russell's Demon (physics)
• Wiener's Demon (cybernetics)

monsters

• the monster group (math)
• a monster state (physics)
• Utility monster (philosophy)

other creatures and spirits

• Faddeev–Popov ghost (physics)
• Floating Man (philosophy)
• Brain in a vat (philosophy)
• gremlins (comsci general)
• ghost in the machine (gilbert ryle) (philosophy)

curious animals

• Schrödinger's cat
• Infinite monkey theorem
• infinite pigeons in infinite holes
• Buridan's ass
• Buttered cat paradox
• wittgenstein duck rabbit
• wittgenstein beetle

curious objects and instruments

• gabriel's horn
• Feynman sprinkler
• Heisenberg's microscope
• Ladder paradox
• Newton's cannonball
• Sticky bead argument
• big book
• zeno's arrow
• indiscernibles (identity of)
• lucretius's spear
• mach's motionless chain
• feynman indestructible blocks as energy (physics)
• Brillouin's Flashlight

curious vehicles

• Galileo's ship (Salvatius Ship)
• Ship of Theseus

curious machines

• Abstract Machine (comsci)
• Turning Machine
• Turning Test for machines (comsci)
• Analytical Engine (comsci)
• Brainstorm machine (philosophy)
• Nozick's Experience machine (philosophy)
• perpetual motion machine (physics)
• bernard's body-exchange machine (philosophy)
• Marian Smoluchowski's machine (physics)
• leibniz's mill/machine (natural vs artificial) (philosophy)
• godel self referential machines (philosophy)
• machine as metaphor for: humans, mind, body, animals, universal law, universe itself (philosophy)
• rothstein well-informed heat engine (philosophy)
• Landauer reversible machines (philosophy)
• feynman irreversible machine (physics)
• szilard's Engine (physics)

curious places

• devil's staircase
• infinite library
• Plank of Carneades
• plato's cave (forms?)
• hume's missing shade of blue
• rule-ruled room
• Cocktail Party Effect
• Spotlight effect
• prison experiment

curious persons

• Elitzur–Vaidman bomb-tester
• Twin paradox
• the catholic cannibal
• Wigner's friend
• Prisoner's dilemma
• The Monkey and the Hunter
• Quantum suicide and immortality
• Two Generals' Problem
• Dining philosophers problem
• vexed Violinist (ethics)