First time posting!!! Need help w/mythical village riddle!

PS

You wrote, "There are some huge faults with that logic".

Unless you can point to these 'huge faults' you mention, that comment falls very close to the definition, 'a sweeping and unsupported piece of bad manners'.

I'm sure you did not intend it that way and that your choice of words was to say the least unfortunate, but without a valid argument in support, surely 'In my opinion' or 'it seems that . . .' might have been better.

It seemed more absurd to me at first, but mostly it was my logic which was wrong. I don't know. To me it just doesn't work out. Maybe I just need to think about it longer. Honestly, that first post I was going to say "There are huge flaws in the logic, unless I'm dumb." But I figured "Why hold back?" You're right though, it was bad manners, and I apologize.

The stranger only says "I can see at least one red spot".

Lets say there were three people with red spots. They'd each look at the other two and think "So, there they are". They'd have no reason to think that they themselves must have a red spot. And the more people with red spots the more this argument falls down. It only holds true if there is only one person with a red spot (maybe two but even that is drawing it a bit fine).

Actually, no, since they are logical three of them would assume that two of them would figure it out in two days, since one of them would figure it out immediately. Four of them could then assume that three could figure it out in three days, and 100 would assume that they would figure it out in 99 days, and kill themselves on the hundredth. But that logic doesn't seem to sound when yu get higher. I mean, one thousand people would not just assume that if there were only 999 with red spots that they would figure it out in a 999 days, and on the 1000th assume they too had a red spot and kill themselves. That just wouldn't happen.

Yes, but the guy only said that he could see at least one red spot. So each of the three people can see two other people with red spots and each of those can also see another person with a red spot (plus the original thinker).

You have to go by elimination. For example. If there were only one person with a red dot, he would know it was himself, and kill himself. Say there were two and you are one of them. You see one other dot. You know that if he were the only one he would figure it out and kill himself. Since he does not, you deduce that someone else has a red dot, and it must be yourself. If there were three people and you were one of them, by the third day you would assume the two of them would have killed themselves based on the above logic, and therefor you must have a red dot too, and you kill yourself. If there were four, you would assume they would figure out by day three, and if not, you have a spot two, and kill yourself on the fourth day. You can continue this all the way up. The logic is fine, but the concept is not. If there were five hundred people with red spots they would never figure it out.

The thread does say that they were PERFECTLY logical people. Anyone who can count as high as maybe three but is defeated by bigger numbers can hardly be described as perfectly logical.

However, not being perfectly logical myself, all I now say is, "Yeah yeah. Right. Whatever." and "See you around maybe"

If the people in the village were all perfectly logical, then when they heard the stranger's utterance, then would realize that it will ultimately lead to the mass suicide of the entire village. Therefore, to halt this disaster from happening, someone would just immediately say "Hey, Joe, you are the one with the red dot, why don't you go jump in the well?" Then Joe, knowing he has a red dot, would jump in the well, and noone else would now have to die. Sacrifce one person to save the village, sounds perfectly logical to me.

Hmm... wouldn't quite work. You're right that they would take some action. Still, if they were perfectly logical they would see no need to kill themselves. Assuming that is the one bit of logic they lack, they would take some counterplan.

Ped, let's do a little role play. I'll represent half of the administrative population, and you represent the other half, and we'll see what logical conclusion we can come to. If we see any logical flaw in the others arguments, we should point it out immediately. I'll go first.

Three days after statement:
Well, it has been three days, and no one has killed him/herself yet. That means there are at least three people with red spots. Oo! I just had an idea. We should have a bombing. If we kill some random people, and don't disclose any spot information of those killed, then it will throw off everyone elses math, and they won't know when to kill themselves, and therefor won't.

The same day:
But wait, we don't have to kill anyone. Don't you remember that on the very first day, we banished 2 people (1 with green dot and 1 with red dot) to live out their lives in eternal isolation. They each went separately, neither one knows if he was the chosen green-dot or the chosen red-dot person, and they will never see each other either. Now no one has to kill themselves!

(I don't see how that works if there are a lot of people with red dots)

(Okay, wait... I'm thinking it out a little more...)

I agree with Iacomus - if 1 person had a red spot then as a result of the daily meet-and-greet he would know that he must be the one. He would then have to jump in the well. All the others would then know their spots to be green and, well, let's just say it would get pretty crowded down there!
If there were any more than 1 red spotted dude, again Iacomus is correct - it would just take the appropriate number of days for all the reds to realise how many of them there were - and then for the remaining greens to follow.

Of course Iacomus was correct if the countdown were allowed to continue. However, being logical people, wouldn't they do something to stop the countdown and prevent the otherwise suicide of the entire village?

Why wouldn't they banish 2 people (one green, one red) on the first day to prevent the "countdown" from occurring? A clever village could actually banish just 1 person, with no deaths occurring at all, since no one would ever find out what color he had.