Devil's Bargain: If you cut off a finger, you receive $10,000. For every extra finger, add a zero. How many do you cut?
249
resolved Mar 25
Cut off no fingers, receive no money
Cut off one finger, receive ten thousand dollars ($10,000)
Cut off two fingers, receive one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000)
Cut off three fingers, receive one million dollars ($1,000,000)
Cut off four fingers, receive ten million dollars ($10,000,000)
Cut off five fingers, receive one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000)
Cut off six fingers, receive one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000)
Cut off seven fingers, receive ten billion dollars ($10,000,000,000)
Cut off eight fingers, receive one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000)
Cut off nine fingers, receive one trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000)
Cut off ten fingers, receive ten trillion dollars ($10,000,000,000,000)
Show Results

This is a favorite hypothetical of mine.

A bored devil enters our dimension and offers you a bargain. If you cut off one finger, you get ten thousand dollars. For every additional finger you cut off, the reward increases by an order of magnitude up to ten trillion dollars.

You must make your decision immediately, the devil will retract his offer in five minutes.

Finger-related fine print:

  • You can choose which specific fingers you keep.

  • The fingers have to be cut off right now, but you don't have to do it yourself. The devil will cut them off for you if you don't want to.

  • You don't get to keep your removed fingers, the devil takes them with him.

  • You won't die from your wounds or get an infection or anything like that.

Economic fine print:

  • The value the money represents is magically added to the world's economy, so the devil's bargain is not inflationary.

  • The devil will also provide you full legal services free of charge and guarantees that your reward is post-tax. He can invent a reason for your windfall with a paper trail or keep the money perfectly secret.

  • If you prefer, the devil can provide equivalent reward in another currency of your choice.

I'll probably make a market about the results of this poll shortly, depending on how much disagreement there is.

Edit: There is no disagreement so instead we can bet on

/Joshua/what-would-manifold-do-with-ten-tri

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