Yes, but the chance of magic powers from outside the matrix is low enough that what he says has an insignificant difference.

...or is an insignificant difference even possible?

Hm. I'd rather have seen more of the analysis on whether what they do with the money is useful, but this is something.

Hmm, didn't really get anything out of this. Maybe you need to be able to be competent at stuff in the first place to sabotage yourself?

If this ever happens again I'd make one for the long-term evolutionary one that tries to learn strategies U-style, and then remembers what it learned in future rounds. If that's allowed.

Shouldn't priority be given to improving quality of lives first?

It makes me sad because it means smart people aren't doing things that are actually useful.

This isn't quite what your post was about, but one thing I've never understood is how anyone could possibly find "the universe is totally random" to be a MORE simple explanation.

Well this explains a lot.

The thing is, the other world was chosen specifically BECAUSE it had the opposite answer, not randomly like the world you're in.

Maybe in ninety-eight universes out of 100 it does blow up and we just see the one that's left; and he's actually giving an accurate number. :P