From: The Low Willow (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Wed Dec 11 1996 - 15:57:29 MST
} >Do you take only box B, figuring that you'll get the million dollars
} >that will be there?
}
} >Or do you take both boxes... on the theory that Omega has made his
} >prediction and left, so you can't possibly get LESS money by taking both
} >boxes?
Actually, when in situations like this one, or the iocaine powder
"battle of wits" in _The Princess Bride_ -- whenever you're in such a
recursion with no brake "she knows I'd do the opposite so maybe she's
seeming to make me do the opposite of what she wants -- but maybe she
figured I'd realize this..." one should flip a coin. This breaks the
cycle. Of course in the given case, if the Power is supposed to know
you so well, it would probably have avoided you like the plague. And
this wouldn't have helped in _The Princess Bride_.
Actually, since I don't see a physical basis for true "free will", if
you truly are unpredictable it probably comes down to flipping a coin
somehow anyway.
Merry part,
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-) <*> http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix
Mr. Knightley seemed to be trying not to smile; and succeeded without
difficulty, upon Mrs. Elton beginning to talk to him.
-- Jane Austen, _Emma_
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