[Foundation-l] GFDL and relicensing

[Anthony]

On Nov 23, 2007 10:16 AM, Thomas Dalton <thomas.dalton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > We're talking about possible but unlikely risks, not possible but
> > > unlikely gains. They are completely different.
> > >
> > From a game theory perspective, aren't they exactly the same?
>
> No. If you own £100, losing £100 is infinitely bad. There is no amount
> of gain that is infinitely good.
>
Losing all your money is not infinitely bad.  Losing £101 would be
worse.  And even if that weren't true, I don't think you're using
"infinitely" in any standard sense of the term.  About the only result
I could see *arguably* being "infinitely" bad would be losing your
life, but even then for most people there are things they value more
than their life, and the situations we're currently discussing don't
involve loss of life anyway.

Besides, even if that were true, that alone doesn't make possible
risks "completely different" from unlikely gains.  I agree with you
that losing all your money isn't equal to doubling all your money, but
this is an effect of the [[marginal utility]] of money, not a
fundamental difference between an actual cost and an [[opportunity
cost]].