Poll: How much would you gamble?

[SlaveNumber23]

So lets say you have a magical coin, the way you obtained the coin and the science behind its powers are irrelevant, its magic. This coin has a 'heads' side and a 'tails' side and the probability of it landing on either side when you flip it is exactly equal, no matter what method you use to flip it, there is no way to influence your chances at all. You can flip the coin as many times as you would like and depending on the result of the coin toss you will either gain or lose something.

Land a 'heads' and you will gain something of significant value. It could be a large sum of money, a nice car, a dream job or even love. What you gain will be chosen completely at random and you do not have a say in what it is, the only thing that is certain is that it will be of significant value relative to you personally.

Land a 'tails' and you will lose something of varying value to you. This could be something as insignificant as a pen, maybe your mobile phone or something of greater monetary value such as your car or house. You may even lose something outside of monetary value, such as one of your limbs or your eyesight or even a loved one. You will never directly lose your life but depending on what is taken you may need medical attention to stay alive. What is taken from you is completely random.

Whatever you lose or gain will remain unnoticed and unquestioned by other people, to them things will be completely normal, so you don't have to worry about explaining your new found fortune to anyone.

So would you flip the coin? How many times would you do it? Would you try it once or twice and then never again or go all in so to speak? Its difficult to set up poll answers that aren't flawed or don't leave anything out so I'm just going to make it a simple yes or no. If I've left any crucial bits of information out of this post just let me know and I can clarify things for you.

Personally I would probably go the boring option and not use the coin at all, I'm not much of a gambler and I'm pretty content with things in my life as they are now. Lots of money or something would be awesome but its not something I crave or feel like I need.

 

[gazumped]

No. But I would keep it in case I find myself in the future with nothing to lose. It'd be reassuring to know that if I ever ended up with nothing to live for I'd have a chance of being able to make something good happen.

 

[Eleuthera]

Isn't it going to be worse "when you've got nothing to lose"? Right now I could use it and lose a paperclip, or an old reportcard. Once I've got "nothing" it'll be an arm, or my sense of taste...

In a way the more useless crap you have the better the odds, so collect as much stupid stuff I can get and give it a spin...

EDIT: Would we be told what we lost? Or would I have to sift through my entire pile of junk to figure out wether is was a paperclip or a kidney?

 

[lechat]

i actually lost 37 coin flips in a row to the one friend back when i was younger it got to the point where when we had to flip for who slept on the floor or got the shit food i'd just be like "fuck it" and take the lesser option

 

[Scarim Coral]

No because the risk is far too great for me to take especially when I don't know what I will gain or lost. Sure I take risk in games but real life is different other than money and even then I don't gamble alot of my money.

 

[Rascarin]

Stakes are way, way too high. I'd never risk my loved ones. And I'm fairly attached to my limbs and bodily functions. And I have the worst luck.

 

[Fasckira]

I'd give it a few flips, for sure. I fancy my chances.

As long as the risks dont include death/deadly illness Im game.

 

[Jamash]

The science and mechanics behind the magic may be irrelevant, but they still leave a lot of unanswered questions.

If I flip a tails and by random chance I lose my pants, you're saying nobody would notice or question why I'm suddenly walking around with my wedding tackle exposed to the elements? How much can I take advantage of this stealth exhibitionism before it's considered to be a bigger silver lining than the cloud itself?

What about if I'm driving along in my car and I flip a tails which randomly makes me lose my car? Would I suddenly find myself travelling in a seated position above (then bouncing and sliding along) the road? If people wouldn't notice this loss, would the person travelling behind me still see my car, or would they just be blind to my bouncing body that suddenly appeared in front of them?

Say a stranger was drowning in a whirlpool and since I'd already lost my pet to a flip of the coin, I decide to pull them out, but as I was pulling them out of their watery grave, I decided to try my luck again and but flip yet another tails, which randomly causes me to lose my arm, the very same arm I'm pulling them out of the whirlpool with... are you saying that they wouldn't notice the sudden disappearance of my life-saving limb and would continue to rise out of the whirlpool unaided?

What about if I flipped the coin and caught it on my hand and it landed on tails, which caused me to lose that very same hand. Would that cancel out that flip as the coin would no longer be caught, with the true result would be whatever side the coin landed on when it hit the floor? Would my hand be cast into a state of flux, both existing and not existing simultaneously?

 

[hooblabla6262]

I would first enter a hospital, then start flipping my new magic coin.

One flip couldn't hurt, right?

 

[Brainwreck]

Nah. 50% is not something I'd risk people's lives on.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Depends on the range of outcomes.

For example, if under the "loss" condition, there are trillions of possible outcomes, such as losing 2 grams of pocket lint, or having an eyelash fall out, or losing the cap to a cheap pen, then the chances of something actually bad happening (like a loved one dying) are astronomically small.

If, however, the loss outcomes are bracketed into say, 5 categories, ranging from insignificant to horrible, then you have at least a 20% chance of something horrible happening, which is substantial (though technically it would be a 10% chance, because you have to account for the chances of winning).


In any case, if I was being clever, I'd wait until I was on my death bed, at the very last few seconds of my life, where nothing earthly would be of any value to me. Then when I flip the coin I would have a 50% chance of becoming immortal, because that would be the only outcome of any significant personal value.

 

[maninahat]

IN no way does the reward outweigh the massive risk. We live in a society where girlfriends and jobs and money are somewhat obtainable without having to use magic, so the benefits are already somewhat underwhelming in comparison to the terrible, potentially irreparable consequences. I imagine there might be a temptation to use the coin when you're down on your luck, but a responsible person would put this coin as far away from themselves as possible, before that could happen.

 

[maninahat]

i actually lost 37 coin flips in a row to the one friend back when i was younger it got to the point where when we had to flip for who slept on the floor or got the shit food i'd just be like "fuck it" and take the lesser option

Is your name Guildenstern by any chance?





See that kids? That's an intellectual reference, that is.

 

[Stu35]

Yes.

I gamble every single day when I get out of bed that I'm not going to fall in the shower and kill myself, I gamble every time I drive that some retard isn't going to blindside my drivers side door.

Also, I'm in the Army, that comes with it's own set of gambles.


Overall, I own a lot of worthless possessions that, statistically, I'm more likely to lose. So to that end I'd give it at least one flip.

I win my first flip? Happy days, fortune awaits. No more flips.

I lose my first flip? Dependent on what I lose I'd go for a second - If I lose a pen, my phone, my car, then it's worth it. Obviously losing a leg, an organ, that'd probably give me some higher worries.

I lose my second flip(if one is taken)? Same as above

I lose my third flip (if one is taken)? Well now it's clear that the gods of coin hate me, and I've played enough Warhammer and Dungeons and Dragons to know that some days the dice (or coin, in this case) just aren't your friend.

 

[CrimsonBlaze]

The second I heard "magic," my answer was NO.

CrimsonBlaze's one rule on magic: I don't F**KS with magic!

Plain and simple.

 

[savandicus]

Given that probability dictates that if I flip the coin enough times I will end up fluctuating around equal results then I pick a number (say 50) and the flip until I am that many ahead. I might end up 150 down at one point but I'd keep flipping sure in the fact that probability will take me back up. Sure I'll lose love ones while I'm flipping but I'll get them back later in the flipping. Once I get to my per-determined number I reap the benefits of my rewards and build a machine that upon my death flips the coin continuously to see what comic effects happen to my body postmortem.

 

[Hagi]

Hell no.

If I win I can potentially increase my happiness somewhat, a new car is nice. But it most likely won't come anywhere near improving my quality of life by say 50%. Even something like finding love is certainly amazing, but also something I can still do without the coin.

If I lose I can potentially ruin almost all prospects I currently have in life, losing my hands would definitely reduce the quality of my life significantly. Even for lesser things I find more likely to reduce the quality of my life than it would increase in the case of winning.

The risk is in no way worth the reward.

 

[TheProfessor234]

At least once but not a lot.