

Ask HN: A human nature thought experiment. - petesalty

So, I've been following the Avatar/Genocide discussion going on here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1050522
It's an interesting discussion that has provided a lot of emotional responses. This got me thinking about human nature when it's boiled down so I thought I'd conduct a little thought experiment.<p>Somewhere in an ocean there's an island. On it are 4 shipwreaked people. One can make sails, one can build a boat, one can sail and one can navigate. The problem is that the island is small and the water and food resources are limited, it cannot support 4 people. With all 4 their probability getting off the island and safely home is good. With only 3 not so much, with two it's poor and with 1 it's essentially impossible. However, the island could support 3 people with some hunger, 2 with realative comfort and 1 in luxury.<p>This is not a high school math problem ("if we just kill one person we can hang out on the island and still have a good chance of getting away"), or a Microsoft interview question, it's a human nature problem.<p>Imagine that they are all from the same culture/race. What do they do?<p>Now image that they are all from different cultures/races (if there are language differences it doesn't affect their ability to build a boat and sail away). What do they do?<p>I know what I think but what about you?
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mooism2
Really, it depends on the people.

I am reminded of the two miners who were trapped underground in China a few
years ago. Finally one gave in to his hunger pangs, killed and ate the other.
He was then rescued, less than 24 hours after they had become trapped.

Granted, the news reports I heard did not mention the ethnicity of either of
the miners. But I don't think many people would have predicted that outcome in
a thought experiment.

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yannis
If they are all hackers they will simulate the situation using a genetic
algorithm based on ant colonies and sail away:)

If they are lawyers they will debate the issue until one dies and they will
never sail.

If they have a background in marketing they will probably try and convince the
fatter not to eat anything until they come up with a strategy...

~~~
nishantmodak
If they are startup founders, they would optimize the resources and exit!

