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Author Topic:   Test your wits
lyx2no
Member (Idle past 4744 days)
Posts: 1277
From: A vast, undifferentiated plane.
Joined: 02-28-2008


Message 46 of 49 (478840)
08-21-2008 7:03 AM


Life on the Installment Plan
In the iterate game both do life in six month increments. Break the cycle, my friends: rat.

Kindly
When I was young I loved everything about cigarettes: the smell, the taste, the feel . everything. Now that I’m older I’ve had a change of heart. Want to see the scar?

  
AGilpin
Junior Member (Idle past 5724 days)
Posts: 1
Joined: 08-22-2008


Message 47 of 49 (478961)
08-22-2008 4:48 PM
Reply to: Message 1 by Hyroglyphx
08-08-2008 1:43 AM


Test your wits
In the event that at least one of the suspects are guilty of a crime would he/she not have any problem betraying the co-accused? Even if the other is not guilty? Undoubtably the most obviously best outcome is for both to remain silent. Both of these scenarios assume that the individuals involved have honor and integrity.

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This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Hyroglyphx, posted 08-08-2008 1:43 AM Hyroglyphx has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 48 by Chiroptera, posted 08-22-2008 5:08 PM AGilpin has not replied

  
Chiroptera
Inactive Member


Message 48 of 49 (478964)
08-22-2008 5:08 PM
Reply to: Message 47 by AGilpin
08-22-2008 4:48 PM


Re: Test your wits
In the event that at least one of the suspects are guilty of a crime....
Both suspects are guilty. That wasn't explicitly stated in the OP, but it is a standard part of the problem that both are guilty and so either can offer real testimony against the other.
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Undoubtably the most obviously best outcome is for both to remain silent.
Sure. But the problem is that neither suspect can really be certain that the other will be silent. And if a suspect is silent while the other one sings, then the silent one gets the worst punishment. If the partner does testify, then the suspect should also testify in order to get the more lenient punishment.
On the other hand, if the suspect testifies while the partner remains silent, then she gets off scot-free.
This is the dilemma. You are right -- the best outcome is if both remain silent. However, in examining the problem in terms of narrow self-interest, it is always better to rat out the other -- and so in the end both suspects, if they are rational and self-interested, end up with the not-best situation.
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Both of these scenarios assume that the individuals involved have honor and integrity.
No. Just the opposite. In examining the situation, it appears that the situation calls for not having honor or integrity. The individual should testify, because no matter what the other does, you always come out ahead.
Sure, if both have "honor and integrity", then they will be rewarded with the best possible outcome. However, neither suspect can really trust that the other will have honor and integrity, they are forced to conclude that they must act without honor and integrity.

Speaking personally, I find few things more awesome than contemplating this vast and majestic process of evolution, the ebb and flow of successive biotas through geological time. Creationists and others who cannot for ideological or religious reasons accept the fact of evolution miss out a great deal, and are left with a claustrophobic little universe in which nothing happens and nothing changes.
-- M. Alan Kazlev

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 Message 47 by AGilpin, posted 08-22-2008 4:48 PM AGilpin has not replied

  
fallacycop
Member (Idle past 5548 days)
Posts: 692
From: Fortaleza-CE Brazil
Joined: 02-18-2006


Message 49 of 49 (479004)
08-23-2008 2:52 AM
Reply to: Message 20 by Rrhain
08-09-2008 6:06 AM


White as the only way you can walk 4 km south, 6 km east, and then 4 km north to wind up exactly where you started again is if you were at the North Pole.
There are other ways. You could be camped close enought to the south pole that after walking 4 km south you would take one turn around the south pole walking over a circle with exactly 6 km circunference, and then walk 4 km back to your camp. That works if you camp anywhere over a circle centered on the south pole with radius r = 4 + 6/(2 pi).
Interestingly, there are more solutions. You could use a circle half as big, which would mean taking two turns around it to complete the 6 km walk. You could use a circle a third the size of the original one and take three turns around. Etc... You get the picture.
Can you think of any other solutions?

This message is a reply to:
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