Turns out Pascal’s mugger is real, and as would be expected of someone who does Pascal’s muggings, he’s a jerk and likes forcing people to make impossible decisions. Also, his threats are discovered to be truthful and credible. He decides he’s sick of mugging after collecting a few trillion dollars from it and wants to try something new. He takes out a gun (killing people with Matrix powers is for cowards) and forces you to make a choice.
Scenario 1: He puts the gun to your head. “I will kill you unless you let me put you through torture 3^^^3 [1] times more intense than anything you can possibly imagine. Don’t worry though, it’ll only last for a millisecond, and you won’t remember it or suffer any trauma or anything.”
Scenario 2: He puts the gun to a random stranger’s head and tells you to make the choice for them. He freezes the stranger in place with his Matrix powers (2a: the stranger overhears before being frozen and decides on what they would choose, 2b: the stranger is frozen before they know what’s happening) so the stranger has no way of communicating their preference to you. He will shoot if you don’t make a choice.
Scenario 3: He puts the gun to a random stranger’s head and tells them to make the choice. After you hear the stranger’s choice (3a: they choose death, 3b: they choose torture), the mugger gives you the option to override it. He will abide by the stranger’s choice if you don’t make a choice.
What should you do?
In the words of the Torture vs Dust Specks question this was inspired by: I think the answer is obvious [in all scenarios]. How about you?
Footnote:
[1]: The notation is called Knuth’s up-arrow notation. 3^3 is 3 times 3 times 3. 3^^3 is 3^(3^3). 3^^^3 is 3^^(3^^3). 3^^^3 is used as an arbitrarily large quantity so that there’s no situation where it’s “too small”.
Short, Extreme, Forgotten Torture vs Death
Turns out Pascal’s mugger is real, and as would be expected of someone who does Pascal’s muggings, he’s a jerk and likes forcing people to make impossible decisions. Also, his threats are discovered to be truthful and credible. He decides he’s sick of mugging after collecting a few trillion dollars from it and wants to try something new. He takes out a gun (killing people with Matrix powers is for cowards) and forces you to make a choice.
Scenario 1: He puts the gun to your head. “I will kill you unless you let me put you through torture 3^^^3 [1] times more intense than anything you can possibly imagine. Don’t worry though, it’ll only last for a millisecond, and you won’t remember it or suffer any trauma or anything.”
Scenario 2: He puts the gun to a random stranger’s head and tells you to make the choice for them. He freezes the stranger in place with his Matrix powers (2a: the stranger overhears before being frozen and decides on what they would choose, 2b: the stranger is frozen before they know what’s happening) so the stranger has no way of communicating their preference to you. He will shoot if you don’t make a choice.
Scenario 3: He puts the gun to a random stranger’s head and tells them to make the choice. After you hear the stranger’s choice (3a: they choose death, 3b: they choose torture), the mugger gives you the option to override it. He will abide by the stranger’s choice if you don’t make a choice.
What should you do?
In the words of the Torture vs Dust Specks question this was inspired by: I think the answer is obvious [in all scenarios]. How about you?
Footnote:
[1]: The notation is called Knuth’s up-arrow notation. 3^3 is 3 times 3 times 3. 3^^3 is 3^(3^3). 3^^^3 is 3^^(3^^3). 3^^^3 is used as an arbitrarily large quantity so that there’s no situation where it’s “too small”.