One point that's clearly wrong is that risk-attitude matters for which solution is correct, whatever the other elements of this analysis mean.
I don't see how you could possibly know that without knowing where the error in my reasoning is unless you already know with high confidence that in the correct solution the options are either nowhere close to being balanced or identical in every way anyone with consistent preferences could possibly care about. That would imply that you already know the correct solution and are just testing us. Why don't you simply post it here (at least rot13ed)? Wouldn't that greatly facilitate determining whether other solutions are due to misunderstandings/underspecifications of the problem statement or errors in reasoning?
I don't see how you could possibly know that without knowing where the error in my reasoning is unless you already know with high confidence that in the correct solution the options are either nowhere close to being balanced or identical in every way anyone with consistent preferences could possibly care about.
That's the case. Updateless analysis is pretty straightforward, see shokwave's comment. Solving the thought experiment is not the question posed by the post, just an exercise.
(Although seeing the difficulty many readers had with interpreting the i...
Consider the following thought experiment ("Counterfactual Calculation"):
Should you write "even" on the counterfactual test sheet, given that you're 99% sure that the answer is "even"?
This thought experiment contrasts "logical knowledge" (the usual kind) and "observational knowledge" (what you get when you look at a calculator display). The kind of knowledge you obtain by observing things is not like the kind of knowledge you obtain by thinking yourself. What is the difference (if there actually is a difference)? Why does observational knowledge work in your own possible worlds, but not in counterfactuals? How much of logical knowledge is like observational knowledge, and what are the conditions of its applicability? Can things that we consider "logical knowledge" fail to apply to some counterfactuals?
(Updateless analysis would say "observational knowledge is not knowledge" or that it's knowledge only in the sense that you should bet a certain way. This doesn't analyze the intuition of knowing the result after looking at a calculator display. There is a very salient sense in which the result becomes known, and the purpose of this thought experiment is to explore some of counterintuitive properties of such knowledge.)