February 24, 2007
Metaphysical Lottery Question
aka, Schrodinger's cat
Last evening I was in a convenience store, chatting with the clerk. He pointed out to me that the local lottery was up to $177 million. He said the drawing was in an hour, and I better not miss out.
Usually when I play lottery tickets I buy $5 worth, and I let the computer pick the numbers for me. But last night I passed altogether on buying any tickets.
Just now I was in another store, and I asked the guy whether anyone had won the prize last night. And he said no, the prize was now up to $210 million.
I joked that I had "made the right decision" last night. I said it was really like I had just won $5 in the lottery.
So here's the question:
Did I a win 'cause I "won" the $5 that I saved? Or, did I lose 'cause one of the numbers that the machine would have picked for me last night might have won? and thus I actually lost $200mill?
What do you think? Tell me in the comments.