eggsyntax · February 6, 2025 19:06
diff --git a/gistfile1.txt b/gistfile1.txt
 https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/5ipinn/you_and_a_super_intelligent_snail_both_get_1/

 (I'm working from just the following:)
 You and a super intelligent snail both get 1 million dollars, and you both become immortal, however you die if the snail touches you. It always knows where you are and slowly crawls toward you. What’s your plan?

 tl;dr:
 Unless there are unspecified assumptions (eg you also know where the snail is at all times, or you start in the same place, or you know the snail is of a species with a tiny range) I think you're just fucked. I don't see any way that you could locate and neutralize it before it can gather sufficient resources to eg have you kidnapped and brought to a convenient-for-it location and tied to a chair to wait for its touch.

 - Necessary assumptions:
  - You and the snail both have full knowledge of the situation as specified.
  - The snail for some reason is fully motivated to kill you, eg you and it can't just work out a good agreement.
  - The snail always knows where you are (specified) but you don't know where it is.
  - I'll assume you can identify the snail on sight but otherwise don't know where it is.
 - If you're going to win, it has to be about stopping the snail before it can gather resources.
 - The snail of course knows this, so it just needs to evade you long enough while still being able to take actions that improve its positions substantially.
 - I'm going to say that having knowledge of human language/culture and access to the internet is sufficient to gather resources (eg given the initial million, which we'll assume is in some crypto wallet, it can predict the stock market well enough to increase its money to arbitrary levels).
 - We're in one of two situations:
  - Case A: the snail hasn't been around human culture, so it needs initial time to learn language / writing / technology, let's say two weeks.
  - Case B: the snail has already been around humans so it can pull that info from its remembered sensory data and put it together, and you don't have that two week head start.
 - Additionally it'll take *some* time for it to parlay its million into lots without detection, hire humans, etc, let's call it another week.
 - So you have something like 1 - 3 weeks before it can just have you kidnapped, brought to a convenient-to-it location, and tied to a chair to wait for it to touch you.
  - Though possibly significantly longer if it's an ocean snail, or if it starts out far from any human habitation.
 - The question is: is there anything whatsoever you can do to figure out where it is within 1 - 3 weeks? If you can find it, you could scoop it into a metal safe and leave it there until you come up with a way to send it into space headed away from Earth fast enough to escape the solar system.
  - Not that I see, not with the resources you have.
	https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/5ipinn/you_and_a_super_intelligent_snail_both_get_1/

	(I'm working from just the following:)
	You and a super intelligent snail both get 1 million dollars, and you both become immortal, however you die if the snail touches you. It always knows where you are and slowly crawls toward you. What’s your plan?

	tl;dr:
	Unless there are unspecified assumptions (eg you also know where the snail is at all times, or you start in the same place, or you know the snail is of a species with a tiny range) I think you're just fucked. I don't see any way that you could locate and neutralize it before it can gather sufficient resources to eg have you kidnapped and brought to a convenient-for-it location and tied to a chair to wait for its touch.

	- Necessary assumptions:
	- You and the snail both have full knowledge of the situation as specified.
	- The snail for some reason is fully motivated to kill you, eg you and it can't just work out a good agreement.
	- The snail always knows where you are (specified) but you don't know where it is.
	- I'll assume you can identify the snail on sight but otherwise don't know where it is.
	- If you're going to win, it has to be about stopping the snail before it can gather resources.
	- The snail of course knows this, so it just needs to evade you long enough while still being able to take actions that improve its positions substantially.
	- I'm going to say that having knowledge of human language/culture and access to the internet is sufficient to gather resources (eg given the initial million, which we'll assume is in some crypto wallet, it can predict the stock market well enough to increase its money to arbitrary levels).
	- We're in one of two situations:
	- Case A: the snail hasn't been around human culture, so it needs initial time to learn language / writing / technology, let's say two weeks.
	- Case B: the snail has already been around humans so it can pull that info from its remembered sensory data and put it together, and you don't have that two week head start.
	- Additionally it'll take some time for it to parlay its million into lots without detection, hire humans, etc, let's call it another week.
	- So you have something like 1 - 3 weeks before it can just have you kidnapped, brought to a convenient-to-it location, and tied to a chair to wait for it to touch you.
	- Though possibly significantly longer if it's an ocean snail, or if it starts out far from any human habitation.
	- The question is: is there anything whatsoever you can do to figure out where it is within 1 - 3 weeks? If you can find it, you could scoop it into a metal safe and leave it there until you come up with a way to send it into space headed away from Earth fast enough to escape the solar system.
	- Not that I see, not with the resources you have.