You get to choose to press a button. 1 out of 100 times, the button electrocutes you to death. 99 out of 100 times, the button dispenses money.
You can press the button as many times as you want. What is your price?
0-5,000$
5,000-25,000$
25,000-100,000$
100,000-250,000$
250,000-1,000,000$
>1,000,000
12-07-2012 12:30 PM
#1
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Another one of those button questions.You get to choose to press a button. 1 out of 100 times, the button electrocutes you to death. 99 out of 100 times, the button dispenses money. | |
Last edited by Renton; 12-07-2012 at 12:33 PM. | |
12-07-2012 12:42 PM
#2
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I choose not to do this. | |
12-07-2012 01:07 PM
#3
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How much money? | |
12-07-2012 01:28 PM
#4
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that one directed at me or did you overlook the poll part which has the different money options? | |
12-07-2012 01:43 PM
#5
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I'll just need tree-fiddy. | |
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12-07-2012 01:46 PM
#6
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12-07-2012 01:58 PM
#7
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who teh fuck voted over a milly? | |
12-07-2012 02:01 PM
#8
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The brackets are set too low, so I obv chose the open ended top bracket. I'm thinking 10 digits + | |
12-07-2012 02:03 PM
#9
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12-07-2012 02:03 PM
#10
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Didn't see the poll, Now I will reassess | |
Last edited by jyms; 12-07-2012 at 02:05 PM. | |
12-07-2012 02:07 PM
#11
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I chose between 250-750. Seems reasonable, although its hard to put into words why I think I fit in that bracket. | |
12-07-2012 02:08 PM
#12
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12-07-2012 02:11 PM
#13
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12-07-2012 02:35 PM
#14
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I'd push it once for $775,000. | |
12-07-2012 02:40 PM
#15
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meh. abstain, but over a mil if i have to. | |
12-07-2012 03:35 PM
#16
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I have a family, and when you have dependents it changes you in ways you couldn't understand so I'll just keep hammering on that button until sweet relief comes. | |
12-07-2012 03:42 PM
#17
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The poll option of "never pushing at any price" needs to be added. | |
12-07-2012 03:44 PM
#18
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12-07-2012 03:45 PM
#19
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12-07-2012 04:00 PM
#20
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12-07-2012 04:04 PM
#21
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12-07-2012 04:05 PM
#22
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clearly i am the only one in ftr who places such a low value on life @_@ | |
12-07-2012 04:08 PM
#23
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clearly | |
12-07-2012 04:11 PM
#24
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12-07-2012 04:12 PM
#25
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12-07-2012 04:18 PM
#26
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Doesn't matter. If I die, I'm dead. Otherwise, riiiiiiiich! | |
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12-07-2012 04:21 PM
#27
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12-07-2012 04:25 PM
#28
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I think the question is flawed because there's nothing forcing me to limit my number. Why settle for 1 mil when I can get 1.5? | |
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12-07-2012 04:32 PM
#29
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12-07-2012 07:29 PM
#30
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As of now I plan on making much more than a million between now and the time I die so I voted > that. | |
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12-07-2012 08:56 PM
#31
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if i didnt have friends and family and the death was painless then logic dictates that any significant amount is acceptable. i couldnt do it tho |
12-07-2012 10:06 PM
#32
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12-07-2012 10:13 PM
#33
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12-07-2012 10:22 PM
#34
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I built this scenario as a test of the monetary value of human life among the relatively well-to-do (white people posting on a poker forum). I'm currently staying in Cambodia, where I'm virtually certain the majority of people would press it for as little as 1,500 dollars. | |
12-07-2012 11:40 PM
#35
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Right, you're asking to take the question in good faith. But it's hard when you start to nail down the number. | |
Last edited by a500lbgorilla; 12-07-2012 at 11:44 PM. | |
12-08-2012 01:32 AM
#36
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You're kinda missing the point here. People living in desperate circumstances with little or no chance of drastically improving their lives are not really comparable to someone like me who's in the top 10% with regard to global wealth and income distribution, has access to great health care, lots of job opportunities and lots of freedom to choose what I do and when I do it not to mention having 2 young children who depend on me, will have access to an excellent education and general life opportunities assuming things stay somewhat the same and are both girls so my death would substantially increase the chances of them working the pole. | |
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12-08-2012 01:41 AM
#37
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i would gladly accept that im stupid for not pressing the button because even though this may look like a logical question its still just a psychological one. if we were dealing with logic purely we would have all killed ourselves long ago |
12-08-2012 04:49 AM
#38
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My words were harsh. I just think everyone in this thread probably takes risks on a regular basis for much lower rewards, such as having unprotected sex, drinking and driving, going too long without changing your break pads, etc. I guess a lot of this is because humans lack the capacity to assess risk, so when its written out in black and white "one percent chance to die," that assessment is no longer necessary and we are able to act more rationally (or irrationally in the case of the extreme risk averse). | |
12-08-2012 05:28 AM
#39
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All those risks combined don't come anywhere close to a 1% chance of death and one of those decisions is by definition made while intoxicated and another often while in intoxicated. I appreciate the reward is greater but still the risk is far too high. | |
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12-08-2012 01:22 PM
#40
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Meh, true for sure but it's different when you're taking life into account. You aren't trading 1% of your life for the money, you are trading 100% of your life 1% of the time. | |
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12-08-2012 02:10 PM
#41
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Actively doing something that leads to your death, of which you're cognizant of, is very difficult. As somebody who has been extremely depressed in the past, the only reason I'm not dead is because I would have had to pull the trigger myself, and I simply couldn't muster it up because there is something very fundamentally unappealing about "pushing the button" that creates your existence's end. All the while I wished that an "act of god" would take me out on its own. |
12-08-2012 02:50 PM
#42
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interesting question. I actually love these types of hypotheticals. | |
12-08-2012 06:16 PM
#43
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yeah my initial thought process was "it is literally impossible for me to regret pushing the button." | |
12-08-2012 06:18 PM
#44
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OP, would my life insurance still pay out in the event of my untimely button induced death? | |
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12-08-2012 06:29 PM
#45
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Depends in your insurer. | |
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12-08-2012 06:41 PM
#46
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Last edited by kiwiMark; 12-08-2012 at 06:44 PM. | |
12-08-2012 06:46 PM
#47
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also if the title was meant to be a pun I totally lol'd. well I did either way, but gj if it was meant to be a pun rather than push-the-button questions being common and having passed me by. | |
12-08-2012 06:58 PM
#48
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12-08-2012 07:28 PM
#49
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Wait, wait, wait... | |
12-08-2012 08:20 PM
#50
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12-08-2012 09:02 PM
#51
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Being an atheist does not equate to assigning a value of 0 to your own life. In fact, the reason I wouldn't push the button is because I so highly value my own life relative to money. I can always find more ways to get money -- I can't replace my life. And I'd like to live out the rest of the life I have remaining, not lose it in a bad gamble (imo) for some extra money I don't need. | |
12-08-2012 11:46 PM
#52
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ya, the whole atheist reasoning kiwi used struck me as pretty odd. | |
12-09-2012 05:48 AM
#53
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You're putting words into my mouth. So far I've said it would be impossible for me to regret pushing the button, and that there would be no negative consequence to pushing the button. | |
12-09-2012 05:50 AM
#54
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In case it's just that I threw the word atheist in there that's messing with people, it doesn't have anything to do with not believing in a god, but the point is the belief/knowledge that when I die the "I" totally ceases to be. | |
12-09-2012 11:09 AM
#55
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EV should be judged on a relative basis. In poker that means that a 0EV play (folding is always 0EV) is poor if there is a better, +EV option available. | |
12-09-2012 12:14 PM
#56
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I'd like to reiterate that I'm not pushing the button. | |
12-09-2012 12:32 PM
#57
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Jesus wouldn't judge you if you did. | |
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12-09-2012 02:15 PM
#58
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But then what really matters isn't your current life evaluation, but the overall picture. The Greeks were onto something with their famous idea: "count no man fortunate until he's dead." |
12-09-2012 02:21 PM
#59
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Poker teaches us to think in terms of EV, but it also teaches us about bankroll management. This question clearly involves "aggressive" bankroll management. | |
12-09-2012 04:09 PM
#60
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I get your logic, but I strongly disagree with the bolded part above. Losing your life is a huge negative component of the EV calc. Just because you aren't around to regret your decision doesn't mean that you haven't lost something tangible. | |
12-09-2012 05:14 PM
#61
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Nothing you've said explains how you disagree with the bolded part above. | |
12-09-2012 06:16 PM
#62
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Trying a different approach.... Do you value your life, and do you value continuing to live beyond this moment? (I'm going to assume you answer "yes"). Once your life ends, that value drops to 0 -- by definition, there is nothing left to value. So going from "alive" to "dead" means that the value goes down. So, you have to include that loss in that 1% chance of losing when you press the button. Isn't that exactly why you wouldn't press the button? Because you value your life too much to risk it on a gamble? | |
12-09-2012 06:17 PM
#63
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12-09-2012 06:27 PM
#64
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That's what I was trying to address in the second paragraph. You have to make your decisions based on the increase/decrease in utility to you, as you exist. So, you have to have a starting point for that utility -- in this case, the zero point is "I'm not alive". | |
12-09-2012 06:31 PM
#65
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12-09-2012 06:32 PM
#66
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I know, and I'm playing coy, but come on. When you die, you're dead. | |
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12-09-2012 07:12 PM
#67
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right now I'm inclined to say that I would take the 99 good lives:1 bad life chance | |
12-09-2012 07:38 PM
#68
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Most people would but then regret it when the time comes to live that one life. Pain is pain and it knows nothing other than pain. When we're happy we say life is good, when we're sad we say life is bad; the difference is that the only time anybody says the bad is worth it for the good is when they've forgotten what the bad is like. Bad things are also substantially more powerful than good things. For example, there is no counterpart to post-traumatic stress disorder. If enough bad things happen to you, your life becomes one of unfathomable suffering, but if enough good things happen to you, you feel kinda just normal. |
12-09-2012 08:14 PM
#69
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ok there thoreau | |
12-09-2012 08:19 PM
#70
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I hope wuggy's back on the sauce cuz then there'd be an excuse for using so many words to talk that much shit | |
12-09-2012 08:20 PM
#71
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fwiw i planned on pushing the button 10 times at 100k a pop. | |
12-09-2012 08:49 PM
#72
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I'm not arguing about what happens after you're dead, or how you feel about things at that point. You're right -- you don't care anymore, there's no consciousness left to value anything. But you make decisions every day with the assumption that death is a very large cost, and factoring that cost into your decisions. | |
12-09-2012 08:56 PM
#73
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12-09-2012 08:58 PM
#74
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12-09-2012 09:03 PM
#75
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I asked a girl and she said 4 million. I asked her why 4 and not 40 and we're being silent. | |
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