RE: More is Better (was RE: another puzzle)

From: Jonathan Colvin <jcolvin.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 11:00:49 -0700

Stathis wrote:

> Yet another variation: for 10 million dollars, would you
> agree to undergo a week of excruciating pain, and then have
> the memory of the week wiped? What if you remember agreeing
> to this 100 times in the past; that is, you remember agreeing
> to it, then a moment later experiencing a slight
> discontinuity, and being given the ten million dollars (which
> let's say you gambled all away). You were told every time you
> would experience pain, but all you experienced was being
> given the money. Would it be tempting to agree to this again
> ("and this time, I'll put the money in the bank")?

I've sometimes wondered whether some anaesthetics might work this way: put
you into a state of paralysis, and affect your short term memory. So you
actually experience the doctor cutting you open, with all the concommitant
pain, but you can't report it at the time and forget about it afterwards. If
you knew an anaesthetic worked that way, would you agree to have it used on
you for surgery?

Jonathan Colvin
Received on Thu Jun 30 2005 - 14:03:45 PDT