4.8 KiB
[BST] Turning perfect foreknowledge into wealth.
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Author: u/None *
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URL:
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Score: 6
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Created: 2015-09-19T17:58:36
Post:
[deleted]
Comments:
u/ArgentStonecutter [+15] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (an hour later)
Say that you can ask the Universe any question, and get a true answer.
I wouldn't ask about the future. I'd go for help. I'm not smart enough to optimize this.
"Who should I demonstrate this ability to to do the greatest amount of good according to my values."
u/GaBeRockKing [+12] Horizon Breach: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6785857 (6 hours later)
what do you think he's doing, man? If I had potentially munchkinable superpowers, the r/rational and spacebattles would be the first places I'd ask (thinly veiled as a hypothetical, of course.)
u/ArgentStonecutter [+6] Emergency Mustelid Hologram (17 hours later)
30 points to Ravenclaw.
u/Anderkent [+9] (4 minutes later)
"What's the best way for me to get ridiculously rich in the next few days without attracting media attention or compromising anything I might value?"
I mean, what did you expect?
u/CFCrispyBacon [+3] (13 minutes later)
Lol. Sadly, I don't think that the system I'm trying to use this in will allow something that vague.
u/eaglejarl [+3] (a day later)
You might restrict it to yes/no questions. Stronger limits make munchkining it more impressive, and a restriction to binary questions will clarify a lot of edge cases.
u/eaglejarl [+5] (a day later)
I'll cop the standard /r/rational answer:
"Using existing programming techniques and hardware, what is the source code and appropriate hardware design for a guaranteed Friendly AGI?"
u/noggin-scratcher [+4] I am a happy tree (23 minutes later)
"Which publicly traded stock or fund will see the greatest rise in value between now and ?", with replaced with however far ahead you can rely on the foreknowledge to be reliable.
Eventually you may run into trouble with your trades distorting the market in which you're trading, and I'm not sure how your system would handle that, but you'd have to have gotten to the point of having considerable wealth to move the market single-handed. Especially if you start restricting the question to highly liquid large-cap stocks, so that there can't be any tricky business with a penny stock being predicted to massively jump in value because you're going to buy into it.
Not sure how to route around the "mild chance for disaster" without knowing what form that disaster takes, but even if it gives you catastrophically bad advice 3 times in 27 you can mitigate the risk by not betting the whole pot on every trade; 24 good picks in every 27 would be easily enough of a success ratio to do very well.
u/MoralRelativity [+1] (10 hours later)
...and you get your seed funding by winning the lottery once.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (a day later)
You probably want to put something in there about "net gain", since a stock that is being heavily day traded could theoretically jump to an absurd price for a millisecond and then drop back again.
Not sure how to route around the "mild chance for disaster"
I think my first question would be something like "what sequence of English words would best explain to me the limits, rules, and potential downsides of this power, where 'best' is defined according to my personal values?"
u/ajuc [+3] (19 hours later)
There were no limitations on the way you ask, so you can join many questions into one, so that (and the 1/9 chance) is not a restriction really.
The most restricting is the "few days ahead" limit, but with lottery it's easy to get rich anyway.
But it would bring attention, so I think much better way is to ask for the address of a bank with anonymous account with the most money on it, and all the required credentials to get that money, and who to hire to get the money for me so (s)he won't betray me and will naturaly die a few hours later anyway (with unverse-wide google you don't even need to be evil, you can just parasite on the natural catastrophes).
u/Newfur [+2] Crazy like a fox. Literally. (3 days later)
...Is this by any chance Mage the Awakening?
u/CFCrispyBacon [+2] (3 days later)
I wish. I'd pay good money to be in a Mage game. Close though-this is the Foresight merit in Vampire: The Masquerade.
u/Newfur [+3] Crazy like a fox. Literally. (3 days later)
OK, because I'm actually working on determining the computational complexity class of P with limited oracle calls to bits from the future (using Augury/Flip of the Coin, or possibly Shifting Sands). Also, I've figured out how to make a Halting Oracle in MtAw.