Hi Skimmer,
now I'm no grate thinker but it seems to me that you use your free will when you make your Choice to participate in the experiment. However you are NOT asked to make a "choice involving two boxes" and this is why. "Your goal is to maximize the amount of cash you get to take out of the room." if there may be $$ in both boxes and you can carry both boxes you can not take only one box and know that you have maximized the amount of cash. but if you take both boxes then you can know that you maximized the amount of cash. remember maximizing the cash is the choice you made. The Experimenter seems to be irrelevant you MUST take the 2 boxes or leave 5,000 there by failing to max. the $$ and failing in your goal. to take box A only $$ or not is to knowingly not "maximize the amount of cash you get out of the room".
Newcomb's Paradox
by Skimmer 14 Replies latest jw friends
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willy_think
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Skimmer
Hello willy_think:
Imagine that you are walking down a city street and you come across a building where the experiment is taking place. There is a very long line of people waiting to go in the entrance to participate. (This is not surprising as a free US$5,000 is guaranteed for anyone who grabs both boxes.) Next to the entrance there is the exit from the building where people who have just participated are on their way home.
Of the hundreds of persons exiting the building, as far as you can tell, everyone who had picked Box A only has a million dollars and each feels that they "won" and have maximized their cash return. Also, as far as you can tell, everyone who picked both boxes is going away with only five thousand.
Which of the two classes of participants has most successfully maximized their results?
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Perhaps there is a rough parallel with the creation account of Genesis. The forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil corresponds to Box B (US$5,000) while the potential of spending immortal bliss in the rest of the Garden is represented by Box A (US$1,000,000).
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waiting
I probably wouldn't do the experiment in the first place. Why? Because I don't believe that any person, particularily called the "Experimenter" will give away a million dollars - particularily when it's stated that he's done this experiment many times.
One would be cautious in assuming that he's either given away millions of dollars - or the money's not there in the first place, no matter what he says. Box B is visible - Box A is not.
Has anybody seen the million dollars regardless of whether it's in Box A or not?
Just call me a Broke Skeptic.
waiting
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willy_think
Skimmer hey, it seems that the people with 1,000,000 failed in there task and the people with 5,000 succeed. some is never ever the max. all is always the max. the people with 5,000 most successfully maximized their results. though greed mite make some think not.
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Skimmer
Hello willy_think:
Would, in your view, anything change if the goal were re-stated as "maximizing the amount of cash you can take home"?. (Instead of "maximizing the amount of cash you can take out of he room".)
I don't see any real difference. The statement of the goal was not intended as a trick.
If there is a trick in the description, then I'd say it was the sentence:
"The contents are fixed BEFORE you make your choice."
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Hello All:
I just did a web search and found well over a hundred references to the problem. There is no consensus of conclusions.