That's interesting: I have much, much less hesitation in saying TORTURE to this one. With the original, I can grudgingly concede that I suppose I possibly ought to choose TORTURE, but I still can't ever quite convince myself to feel that it's a good answer. This one, I think I can.
Suppose you are given a button that you can press at any time during the 50 years of torture, that will stop the torture (and erase your memory of it if you wish), but you'll have to live with the dust speck from then on.
I predict that you'll press the button after actually being tortured for a couple of hours, maybe days, but at most weeks. Even professional spies/soldiers/terrorists who have trained to resist torture end up betraying their cause, so I find it hard to believe that you can hold out for 50 years.
But if you really prefer TORTURE now, that br...
I declare this Open Thread open for discussion of Less Wrong topics that have not appeared in recent posts.