Competition
To celebrate the publication of “Can a Robot be Human?” Oneworld Publications would like to offer all its customers the chance to win £50/$80 worth of Oneworld titles to the person with the most interesting solution in no more than 250 words to the puzzle below.
There will also be 10 books from our new series “Oneworld Thinkers” awarded to 10 runners up.
The winner and 10 runners up will be selected by the author on publication of “Can a Robot be Human?” in November 2007, the author's decision is final.
The Silly Offer
Flossopher offers you £1,000 if you do something utterly silly, something that is totally irrational. You want the money. So, you do silly walks on busy roads, with pink turnips on your head, singing songs backwards while peeling onions and spilling ink.
‘Good attempt,’ says Flossopher, ‘but it wasn’t truly irrational. It’s just the sort of silly activity to win the £1,000; so it was, in fact, highly rational.’
You sit quietly, checking your bank statements – something that seems very rational. 'That must be an irrational thing to do, in the circumstances,’ you think, ‘hence, now I merit the prize money.'
‘Sorry,’ says Flossopher, ‘You lose again - for you were being rational in being irrational in doing something rational.’
What goes on in this puzzle?
The winner is Mr Joeri Witteveen from Netherlands, with the following answer -
'You are right’, I say to Flossopher, ‘Instead, I’ll give you the last £2,000 on my bank account right now, whether you want it or not. If you don’t accept the money, I’ll simply burn it.’ But I hesitate and continue: ‘No, no, wait. Of course you might complain this is a reasoned way of being irrational. I will lose at least £1,000, but if you don’t give me the money, I will be even worse off than if you give me the money. So it is still in my interest to get your £1,000. To be utterly irrational, I should do something that will cause me to gain less from getting your £1,000 than from not getting it. Here is what I will do: I will have myself enclosed in a room with thick concrete walls on four sides, and above me a 10,000 pound concrete block. The concrete block can only be triggered to fall and crush me when an ingenious electronic eye in the one slit that connects the room to the world outside detects exactly £1,000.’ Satisfied with my answer I turn around and am about to leave Flossopher to arrange the setup. But I turn back to him/her, and say: ‘You know what, I changed my mind again. I’ll try to convince you once more with my first attempt.’ And I keep on walking silly walks on busy roads, with pink turnips on my head, singing songs backwards while peeling onions and spilling ink.