An organized band of 500 cowboys captures a passing train and loots all the passengers, coming out with exactly 1000 gold coins. Now it's time to figure out how to distribute the coinage, and the following rules apply:
-the cowboys each have a rank, from 1st to 500th.
-it's up to the lowest-ranked cowboy to suggest a breakdown of how to distribute the coins among the remaining cowboys, which will be voted on, and if he does not receive a majority of yeses, he will be slaughtered (tie vote = death), and it's on to the next lowest-ranked cowboy to offer up his proposal.
-rank is irrespective of voting power; every cowboy's vote is as valid as the next.
-all 500 cowboys share the same universal intelligence/logic.
-all 500 cowboys are as blood-thirsty as they come, only surpassed by their greed.
You are the 500th-ranked cowboy, and your task is to come up with a distribution among everyone to a. come out with your life, and b. satisfy your greed with the maximum amount of gold coins afforded to you.
What is the maximum number of coins you can keep for yourself?
Bonus: what is the general distributive order of how to allocate the coins among the 500 cowboys?
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An organized band of 500 cowboys captures a passing train and loots all the passengers, coming out with exactly 1000 gold coins. Now it's time to figure out how to distribute the coinage, and the following rules apply:
-the cowboys each have a rank, from 1st to 500th.
-it's up to the lowest-ranked cowboy to suggest a breakdown of how to distribute the coins among the remaining cowboys, which will be voted on, and if he does not receive a majority of yeses, he will be slaughtered (tie vote = death), and it's on to the next lowest-ranked cowboy to offer up his proposal.
-rank is irrespective of voting power; every cowboy's vote is as valid as the next.
-all 500 cowboys share the same universal intelligence/logic.
-all 500 cowboys are as blood-thirsty as they come, only surpassed by their greed.
You are the 500th-ranked cowboy, and your task is to come up with a distribution among everyone to a. come out with your life, and b. satisfy your greed with the maximum amount of gold coins afforded to you.
What is the maximum number of coins you can keep for yourself?
Bonus: what is the general distributive order of how to allocate the coins among the 500 cowboys?
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