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437

Infinite Hotel Paradox (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

39 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/25703033

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert%27s_paradox_of_the_Grand_Hotel

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago (1 children)

But if being without a room is a form of suffering, then wouldbt it make more sense to distribute that suffering equally, so that no one person has to bear an unendurable length of time without a room, instead each person is just momentarily inconvenienced as they shift.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That's without considering the time to pack up your bags etc - ie there's a fixed cost as well as the cost per room moved

To minimise the total societal cost, only one person has to leave their room, and by that (or any) one person not making the sacrifice, the average suffering increases across all of median, mean and mode...

It's the opposite situation from where one person can get huge gains to the detriment of many others - eusocially it makes sense to do what's best for the average person

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

What you could do is tell each next person to move out in half the time it took the previous person. This way you get an infinite amount of moves done within a finite time limit.