A Fatal Flip

Suppose you receive the following option.

You flip a fair coin. If the coin is Heads, you acquire healthy immortality. If the coin is Tails, you instantly die.

The expected value of this option seems infinite: .5*infinity + 0 is still infinity, no?  Even if you apply diminishing marginal utility to life itself, it’s hard to imagine that the rest of your natural life outweighs a 50% shot of eternity… especially if you remember that many of your actual years are unlikely to be healthy.

Nevert...

 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on October 16, 2018 16:35
No comments have been added yet.


Bryan Caplan's Blog

Bryan Caplan
Bryan Caplan isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.
Follow Bryan Caplan's blog with rss.