Re: stock talk: effect of $ prizes

Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Tue, 10 Aug 1999 22:15:13 -0700

Sasha Chislenko wrote:

> What is the point of having a GIMPS team, if everybody can just
> join personally, and then decide what to do with the prize, if any?
> How would the team work?

With a team you get higher GIMPS ranking, which entitles you to smaller exponents which increases your chances of finding the prized prime. If we each start as lone wolves, we would rank in the 8 thousands and get lousy exponents. If we take up my offer of 3.4 CPU years, we *start* at a rank in the 700s, and move up more quickly.

Nowthen, Sasha you *do* raise an interesting question about the prize money. Even if the stated *intention* is to donate the prize to extropians, would it not be a temptation for the finder to defect and pocket the loot? Of course. Even if one is part of a team, with the stated intention of donation, one maintains the *legal* and perhaps even moral right to defect, in whole or in part. I acknowledge that possibility, and yet in a sense this makes the whole adventure even more appealing. spike