Chapter 96: The Question
"Here's the question, there are three people. Person A, B and C. A and B are friends while C is their common enemy. A and B are enjoying their time on a stroll together and C ambushes them. Looking at how happy they are, he decides to make their life even more miserable than he previously was going to.
C is much more powerful than A and B and therefore, easily traps them. To toy with them, he gives them a cruel dilemma. It was wether they would opt to spare or sacrifice each other. He gives them time to discuss but neither will know what the other chose until their decisions are locked in.
C told them the following things about sacrificing and sparing
First, If both choose to sacrifice each other, he would cut one limb each from them.
Second, if both choose to spare each other, he would cut three limbs each from them.
Third, if one chooses to sacrifice the other person, he would be spared and be freed while the other person would be killed.
And before they could give a response, C cast a loop wherein such an event would occur everyday where he ambushes them and puts them in this cruel dilemma again and again.
You have 5 minutes, you can write what decision both A and B would make on the paper provided. Get going, goodluck."
After Sel finished talking, the question was magically printed on the board behind her for the students to refer. Sel sat back down on the chair beside Arya and continued to do some work on her tablet screen.
Arya reclined back on the chair and closed her eyes to relax. She wondered who the other two students would be that would become her personal students. She didn't even consider the possibility of Lith failing this simple test.
The students initially thought the question was simple and that the decisions A and B might make were simple to write; nevertheless, as they began to read and analyse the question, they became increasingly confused and disoriented.
Lith grasped the question and realised there was no right or wrong response, simply the best case scenario. This was neither the most difficult nor the most straightforward question he had ever faced. He knew the solution, and he had it ready in less than a minute.
The students seated around Lith kept casting sidelong looks at him and the two students opposite him. They were intrigued as to what the toppers were doing at the moment, and after learning that all three of them had given their answers in under two minutes, they concluded that the question wasn't too difficult and that they were overthinking it. As a result, they gathered their thoughts and put down what they considered was the simplest and best scenario at the time.
Arya was relaxing, she didn't notice what the students were doing. However, Sel was observant and was noticing each and every actions of the students. She was noting them down in her tablet while continuing to observe them.
Some students felt their brains were getting fried after two and a half minutes. They were engulfed in an ethereal jumble of events and possible solutions to this riddle. The more they tried to come up with a response, the more perplexed they grew. Some students persevered in their thought, while others gave up and scribbled the most basic response they could think of.
Another two and a half minutes later, Arya opened her eyes and waved her arm. All the answer sheet of the students came flying in front of her. She gave half of them to Sel and checked half for herself. She started checking them along with Sel.
The students waited quietly in their seats and didn't disturb their teacher. After ten minutes, Arya stood up from her seat and came in front of the desk. She looked at the 200 students and said with a smile
"Haha, good answers everyone. But tough luck, the three students with the best answer are the these three sitting in the front row. I thought I made the question easy enough for you to compete with the toppers but in the end, some of you fell short only for a little. Anyway, work hard and do better next time.
Don't worry, even if you are not my personal students, I am still your class teacher and there is Sel here too. You can come to us if you have any problems. You three, come with me."
Arya finished speaking and took Lith, Ralph and Dennis with her and went away from the classroom.
Sel got up from her seat and came in front of the board. She then started explaining the riddle to the students. The students all listened to her in a focused manner.
The question was more of a riddle. There was no correct answer, only the best case scenario as Lith had thought of. Many students wrote the answer as
A decides to sacrifice B and run away or vice versa.
A few decided that Both A and B decide to sacrifice each other.
The scenario where both spared each other was chosen by none of them. It didn't feel like a good choice to any student present.
Sel told the students that half of them failed this test because they forgot the crucial point of not taking the loop into consideration. The loop meant that one mistake from either A or B, would lead them to endless suffering.
For example, if A chooses to sacrifice B and B spares him, A would be able to run away with his life this one time, but B would, in the future rounds, always sacrifice him as a form of revenge. A would suffer endless killing and therefore such an option wasn't correct.
The students who chose the option where both A and B decided to spare each other and have one limb cut off, didn't state any extra reasons in it or talked about the future rounds or events. Therefore, they didn't pass the test to become personal students. They gave their answers while thinking of only the current round and neglected the future ones.
The very minority which even mentioned of the future events in their answers got high merit points but their reasoning wasn't on par with the toppers.
The best case scenario and the correct reasoning for this question was, both A and B decide to spare each other and later when these events unfold again and again, they must co-operate together and avoid the possibilities of infinite triple limb cutting and getting killed as a whole.
This analysis isn't just limited to this one question. This is played out in real-life situations like trade negotiations and international politics. The students must learn to assume that the decisions they make today will impact those of their adversaries tomorrow. Selfishness may win out in the short-term, but with the proper incentives, peaceful cooperation is not only possible, but demonstrably and mathematically ideal.
The mathematical model for this riddle was a bit advance for these young teens and Sel told them that it would be taught in the higher classes. The only ones who gave the proper reasoning along with the best case scenario and proved their reasoning with mathematical models were the three toppers.
This made them stand out among all of their peers and secure their positions and get the highest merit. The reasoning and the scenario that Dennis, Ralph and Lith wrote were the same and their ranking was decided by whose mathematical reasoning was more ideal. Lith had an upper hand in all subjects due to Lucy's teaching and mathematics was naturally one of them.
The students understood the importance of the test and accepted their defeat in a good spirit and noted down the things they learnt today. After Sel finished her explaination, she distributed the uniforms, merit points, resources, credits for this month(the virtual currency of the academy), a phone with a lot of academic things instilled in it and dorm room access cards.
She let everyone go back to their dorm rooms after dismissing the class for the day. On the phone was an Abalax Sky Island map that students could use to find their dorm rooms. On the sky island, there were also numerous screens and signboards at various intervals to ensure that no one got lost. The students exited the classroom to go to their respective dorms.
After ending the class, Sel walked towards the auditorium to meet Arya and the three personal students. There was another introductory event for these personal students and many new stuff was awaiting them there like new roles and new rankings. All selected personal students from other classes would be present there and this also ensured who was the best student in those classes. A new competitive environment was about to occur for these select few students which would give them another boost both academically and also in their magic cultivation.