Re: Twenty Bank Robbers -- CLARIFICATION

[David Sternlight <david@sternlight.com>]

At 6:59 AM -0700 7/26/96, Hal wrote:
>First, the line is established before the proposals begin.  So the
>proposer is not determined by lot, everyone knows who will be #1, #2,
>etc.  Second, I think the proposer gets to vote.  The wording is a bit
>ambiguous, but it just says that "they" vote, and I think "they" pretty
>clearly refers to the whole group.
>
>Now here is the solution for two people:
>
>#1 (first in line) proposes that he gets it all.  #1 votes yes, #2 votes
>no.  The proposal passes.
>
>Here it is for three people:
>
>#1 (first in line) proposes that he gets it all.  #1 votes yes, #2
>probably votes no (since he will get it all if the proposal fails, by
>the above) and #3 (end of line) reasons like this: if the proposal
>fails, he (#3) will get nothing because #2 will get it all.  Therefore
>voting yes or no makes no difference to whether #3 stays alive (his
>first priority) or how much money he makes (his second priority).  But
>it does make a difference in terms of keeping as many people alive as
>possible (his third priority).  So he votes yes because of this third
>reason.  Therefore the proposal passes and the first person in line
>gets it all in this case.
>
>Of course, #1 could have offered some money to #3 and gotten his vote,
>but that would violate the terms of the problem: #1 wants to make as
>much money as possible.  And since he can get #3's vote even while
>offering nothing to him, that is what he will do.

But Hal, these are Cypherpunks, which means some of them are smart and some
are uh, er, um, not so smart. I would not want to be first in line.

David