EPTedit: since the scenario is so vague that there can't be a right answer, there is no need to accept that you have to drink from on of the cups.
ThoughtQuestion - Page 2
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tar
Germany991 Posts
edit: since the scenario is so vague that there can't be a right answer, there is no need to accept that you have to drink from on of the cups. | ||
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SomethingWitty
Canada94 Posts
If you dilute it in enough water you can probably get away with a sip, although because you get the last part of the glass, I assume most of it has stuck to the bottom. In that case, all of you charge him, he can't stop all 50 of you. | ||
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Pangpootata
1838 Posts
In this case, assuming none of them have ever interacted with the man before and have no knowledge that this test was going to happen, then the right cup would be the logical choice. However, seeing that none of them are acting hysterical or showing any human reactions to fear at the presence of the psychopath giving such a test, and can all calmly make a choice, something is very strange about the situation. Perhaps they do know something about the test. In conclusion, the best solution would be to take any one of the two cups, empty it in the sink, wash it thoroughly, fill it with normal water, and drink from it, since the test giver only said "we must drink from one of the cups", not that we must specifically drink the liquid he poured in. I win on a technicality kthnxbai. | ||
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hypercube
Hungary2735 Posts
On February 05 2014 21:07 Pangpootata wrote: I think the OP's question was not put across perfectly, as there are some ambiguities, but basically the gist I get is would you make a choice that seems logical to you, or a choice that seems illogical to you, but everyone else is making? Would you trust your own judgement, or the judgement of the majority? We are not talking about random people but a group of your friends. If you prefer your own judgement over a consensus of your friends you'd better be sure you have more information than they do. Or chose your friends more carefully. + Show Spoiler + Also this: | ||
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hypercube
Hungary2735 Posts
On February 05 2014 16:24 Tobberoth wrote: You guys are not reading the situations properly. You're not supposed to solve this, you're supposed to say what you would do, and it tells you about your character. You guys have hung out in the mathematical quiz thread too much, looking for a definite answer when there can't be one. I disagree, there is a definite correct answer and it depends on details not elaborated in the OP. If two people make different sets of assumptions they can reach different answers even if both of them reasoned correctly. Worse they might argue about it not realizing what they actually disagree on. Thinking that the other person's answer reveals something about their character when it's actually based on differring assumption is a pretty big blunder. I think some assumptions are interesting enough where it makes sense to explore them in detail. E.g, there's absolutely no way to trick the challenge, there's no way to get additional information, both you and your friends seem to be in full control of your mental faculties and actions, the test is probably right, the pill is probably cyanide, drinking the poisonned water probably kills you, drinking the clear one probably doesn't, you and your friends probably prefer staying alive (both as a group, but also individually, if all of your friends do die). The funny thing is that all of these assumptions can't be correct with a 100% probability. If your friends want to stay alive and they know the drink in the left cup will kill them and the other not they would not be drinking from it. So one of these assumptions (or actually your observation of what happened) is incorrect. | ||
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EJK
United States1302 Posts
I thin it would be better if there were 49 people and 24 of them drank out of the right cup, and 24 of them drank out of the left cup, instead of all 50 drinking out of 1 cup as well. ANd whatever answers you recieve will all be flawed. The question itself was logically flawed and cannot have a logical answer based on flawed logic. | ||
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soon.Cloak
United States983 Posts
On February 05 2014 22:05 hypercube wrote: I disagree, there is a definite correct answer and it depends on details not elaborated in the OP. If two people make different sets of assumptions they can reach different answers even if both of them reasoned correctly. Worse they might argue about it not realizing what they actually disagree on. Thinking that the other person's answer reveals something about their character when it's actually based on differring assumption is a pretty big blunder. I think some assumptions are interesting enough where it makes sense to explore them in detail. E.g, there's absolutely no way to trick the challenge, there's no way to get additional information, both you and your friends seem to be in full control of your mental faculties and actions, the test is probably right, the pill is probably cyanide, drinking the poisonned water probably kills you, drinking the clear one probably doesn't, you and your friends probably prefer staying alive (both as a group, but also individually, if all of your friends do die). The funny thing is that all of these assumptions can't be correct with a 100% probability. If your friends want to stay alive and they know the drink in the left cup will kill them and the other not they would not be drinking from it. So one of these assumptions (or actually your observation of what happened) is incorrect. It was basically this type of analysis that I was hoping for, and where my friends and I disagreed about what was the most logical course of action to take. Which observation do you "ignore"? Yes, I know you can "Not drink either", or "Wait a while to see if the people will die", or "Punch the guy in the face and run". Ignore those- they're not relevant (and the whole thing is hypothetical anyways). You have only 2 possible courses of action- drink from the left, or drink from the right. It doesn't matter why, but those are your only options. Which one do you do? | ||
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HwangjaeTerran
Finland5967 Posts
So I'd be gone before the cyanide guy gets there. | ||
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soon.Cloak
United States983 Posts
On February 06 2014 00:53 HwangjaeTerran wrote: I would get suspicious when 50 people claiming to be my friends show up. So I'd be gone before the cyanide guy gets there. lol happy 5k! I'm happy I can be here to share this moment with you. | ||
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NewEyes
Germany113 Posts
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AiurZ
United States429 Posts
1. either everyone around u knows something u dont, or saw something u didnt etc. and are drinking from that cup for a reason or 2. everyone is wrong and u go out with them (what an even more miserable world it wld be after losing ur 50 best frends) or 3. even assuming that the other cup isnt poisoned, can u imagine what life would be like after that, 50 of your closest friends/family all die, in your house, drinking from your cups, and you tell everyone "no its ok, this mysterious guy came in and made us drink from one of the two cups, and i just happened to be the only one who didnt drink the poison" or 4. the fastest way to get out of the game is to kill yourself | ||
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Tobberoth
Sweden6375 Posts
On February 05 2014 22:05 hypercube wrote: I disagree, there is a definite correct answer and it depends on details not elaborated in the OP. If two people make different sets of assumptions they can reach different answers even if both of them reasoned correctly. Worse they might argue about it not realizing what they actually disagree on. Thinking that the other person's answer reveals something about their character when it's actually based on differring assumption is a pretty big blunder. I think some assumptions are interesting enough where it makes sense to explore them in detail. E.g, there's absolutely no way to trick the challenge, there's no way to get additional information, both you and your friends seem to be in full control of your mental faculties and actions, the test is probably right, the pill is probably cyanide, drinking the poisonned water probably kills you, drinking the clear one probably doesn't, you and your friends probably prefer staying alive (both as a group, but also individually, if all of your friends do die). The funny thing is that all of these assumptions can't be correct with a 100% probability. If your friends want to stay alive and they know the drink in the left cup will kill them and the other not they would not be drinking from it. So one of these assumptions (or actually your observation of what happened) is incorrect. Which means there is no definite correct answer. "One of these assumptions is wrong". Right. But it could be any of them, and there's no way to find out why from the OP, thus there's no correct answer to the question, you have to make up your own situation. You make up a reason why your friends drank the poison, and depending on what reason you decided, either the left or right cup is the correct one to drink. | ||
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hypercube
Hungary2735 Posts
On February 06 2014 04:16 Tobberoth wrote: Which means there is no definite correct answer. "One of these assumptions is wrong". Right. But it could be any of them, and there's no way to find out why from the OP, thus there's no correct answer to the question, you have to make up your own situation. You make up a reason why your friends drank the poison, and depending on what reason you decided, either the left or right cup is the correct one to drink. I guess that's true. There is no one correct answer but there is a correct answer for any particular set of assumptions. | ||
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soon.Cloak
United States983 Posts
On February 06 2014 04:16 Tobberoth wrote: Which means there is no definite correct answer. "One of these assumptions is wrong". Right. But it could be any of them, and there's no way to find out why from the OP, thus there's no correct answer to the question, you have to make up your own situation. You make up a reason why your friends drank the poison, and depending on what reason you decided, either the left or right cup is the correct one to drink. But that's the point! You have to guess what reason your friends drank the poison. But it's not an arbitrary guess- you have to calculate the chance of your friends all drinking what you would have sword to be cyanide, relative to the chance that what you are mistaken about what's going on, somehow. I agree that once you make a guess about whether or not what they did makes sense, you are done, but what will that guess be? Will you assume they are acting logically, and you don't know something, or that what you think you know is enough to convince you that they are not acting logically? | ||
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turtles
Australia360 Posts
I have a few REALLY really smart friends. I'm sure almost every person here knows someone who could run circles around them intellectually. Yet they are making an unexpected choice so you have to ask yourself "do I really trust their judgement?", if the answer is yes then they likely have knowledge about the situation you don't. Or maybe YOU are mistaken about which glass is poisened. You thought you saw the left glass get poisoned but can you really be sure of that? I think it's best not to unquestionably trust your own perception, especially in stressful circumstances as it has been proved time and time again to be unreliable. Personally I think I would chose the right glass. But I had to think about it for a while and can understand someone who might chose the left glass. We'll call the origional scenario scenario A. Let me propose a slightly different scenario: SCENARIO B: "the poison is poured into the glass in front of everyone but then everyone EXCEPT me is blindfolded. They each take a turn to take off their blindfold and drink from one of the glasses. If each person drinks from the left glass then I too will drink from the left glass. I don't care that I THINK I saw the poison go in that one I could be wrong about that. It's not like I've never made a mistake in a stressful situation before. There is no way to verify and double check which is poisoned. A unanimous agreement between 50 seperate observations outways a single observation (yours). If 50 witnesses to a crime say the car was red and one guy says it was blue what are you going to believe? Doesn't matter how convinced that one guy is." There is a big difference between scenario A and B. Scenario B has 50 independant observations all coming to the same conclussion. In the origional scenario, scenario A, each descission is not made in a vacuum. Each person who takes a drink has observed the others taking a drink. Say the first person was not paying attention at the correct time, made a mistake due to stress and confusion, maybe they were looking for an exit, whatever. All it would take is for the first person to mess it up and then that sets the ball rolling for group think. The more people drink from the left glass the more pressure is put on the next person. People question their own judgement and then retroactively change their mind about which glass they saw poisoned. It's like with witnesses to a crime, it is vitally important that witnesses DO NOT talk to each other until they have given a full testimony in private. Otherwise they will subconsiously change their perceptions of what happened to be in line with other peoples testimony leading to details being supressed and potentially false information. Scenario B is 1 observation vs 50. I can't overcome that huge disparity, I must be the crazy person in the group. I'm drinking the left cup. In scenario A it is my 1 observation vs only a few observations and a whole mess of group psychology. As the saying goes, "a person is smart and capable, but a group of people is stupid and crazy". I'm drinking the right cup. | ||
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Epishade
United States2267 Posts
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