At 03:03 PM 7/25/96 -0400, Simon Spero wrote:

On Thu, 25 Jul 1996, jim bell wrote:

...

My guess? They all agree to kill whoever made that suicidal rule. Otherwise, all but two would end up dead.

But the people at the start of the line know that if they don't hang together, they will end up dead, and if that they act purely selfishly only the last two will benefit. Because they want to stay alive, a better solution for the first person to propose equal shares, which would be opposed by the last two players, but supported by the rest. He could also split the money only amongst the first half of the gang, since he only needs half the votes.

My previous answer was incomplete, of course. I continue to believe that the problem is unsolveable as stated, if for no other reason than the "weight" of the negative represented by dying is not stated. It's a VERY complex problem, unless there's some trick I'm not seeing. Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com