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Philosophical question: do you take one box or two (see details)?

Asked by SavoirFaire (28841points) March 23rd, 2015

You are presented with two boxes. Box A is transparent and contains $1,000. Box B is opaque, so you do not know what—if anything—is inside. You can take either both Box A and Box B, or you can take just Box B.

The contents of Box B have been determined by someone, call him the Predictor, shortly before the beginning of the game. If he predicted that you would take both boxes (or that you would choose randomly), then nothing was put into Box B. If he predicted that you would only take Box B, however, then $1,000,000 was put into Box B.

Now here’s the twist: the game has been played hundreds of times, and the Predictor has never been wrong before. No explanation for his past predictions is available. All you know is that he has a perfect record of predicting what a player will choose to do. Earlier in the day, the Predictor made his prediction about you and the boxes were filled (or not filled) accordingly.

So here’s the question: how many boxes do you take and why?

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