Free Parking

Original Image courtesy Salon.com as published on http://carsharingus.blogspot.com

Not to congratulate myself again, but anyone who has known me for any significant period of time knows that there are two games at which I excel, draw poker and Parker Brothers' (now Hasbro's) Monopoly.

These are what I call Quantum Games, because they require a person to skillfully incorporate the laws of probability into any successful strategy.

I hate things like slot-machines, because they incorporate the laws of probability exclusively (despite people's personal beliefs, the laws of probability are so strictly enforced by nature, that even government gaming-enforcement agencies can tell by purely statistical methods whether or not casinos and various gaming operations are on the up-and-up...and they generally are, so if you are upset at your inability to "beat the house", it's NOT because the casino is fixing the game, generally-speaking).

But I think it's important for people to understand that many games are "fixed" from the get-go...BECAUSE nature itself has "fixed" the odds of success.

I recently had an EXTREMELY valuble bit of scientific insight that might have led to cures for dozens of diseases (including my own extremely-disabling Multiple Sclerosis) that I will NEVER REVEAL PUBLICLY, simply because it also holds the potential for killing the entire human race.

People might protest such a seemingly ridiculous bit of actuary, but when I realized that the lives of EVERY HUMAN BEING might be at stake vis-a-vis the irresponsible introduction of this insight into the public-domain, I decided to fold what appeared to be a winning hand for the sake of my own conscience.

But [I] will always know that I WAS IN NO WAY responsible for THIS >>>

As in Monopoly, I realized the actual value of including a space marked: Free Parking, which neither helps, nor hurts the player's odds of winning the game.

Call me what you want, but I'm fairly certain that you will thank me later for letting you park free for this one turn. ;)

--mattergy

Addendum Sun Feb 3 2:00 P.M., PST
I don't mean to wax spiritual, but I was struck by the fact that the scientific article that confirmed I was flirting with a potentially abominable "cure" cost me $30, the price for which Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ to His accusers.

That I've elected to withhold my discovery from public view for the sake of preserving what segment of humanity I might from such a potential abomination struck me as fitting, though others might see it as a waste of $30.

Addendum Tue Feb 5 6:00 P.M., PST
I had a private conversation with one of my regular readers who vastly misunderstood the Monopoly connection I was getting at...her take was that the reason I was keeping this to myself was so that I could hold all the cards on a profitable "cure" (which I acknowledged would be a diabolical rationale).

But in Monopoly, holding on to a property for the sake of preventing another player from getting an improvable color-group is ALSO frequently a winning strategy (I make it a point to own at least one property from every color-group [even at the risk of going temporarily in debt] to make sure no one can improve properties except ME, meaning that whatever color-group I improve will ultimately be the color-group that knocks the rest of the players out of the game).

Yes, it's a ruthless strategy, but when I determine that a game (in this case, the game of humanity) will have NO winners if a clearly profitable, yet potentially deadly medicine is developed from MY insight, I'm happy to play the game as an honorable loser. ;)