Lotteries are a regressive tax on those who can’t do math，runs the famous old sayin9．①“Nonsense!”retort critics．“For a dollar，one can purchase the fantasy of being wealthy beyond dreams of avarice．It is cheap at the price．”
Over at Overcoming Bias．Eliezer Yudkowsky says“But isn’t that a waste of hope?”
But consider exactly what this implies．It would mean that you’re occupying your valuable brain with a fantasy whose real probability is nearly zer0——a tiny line of likelihood which you，yourself，can do nothing to realize．The lottery balls will decide your future．The fantasy is of wealth that arrives without effort--without conscientiousness，learnin9，charisma，or even patience．
Which makes the lottery another kind of sink：a sink of emotional energy．It encourages people to invest their dreams，their hopes for a better future，into an infinitesimal probability．If not for the lottery，maybe they would fantasize about going to technical school，or opening their own business，or getting a promotion at work--things they might be able to actually d0，hopes that would make them want to become stronger．④Their dreaming brains might，in the 20th visualization of the pleasant fantasy， notice a way to really do it．Isn’t that what dreams and brains are for?But how can such reality-limited fare compete with the artificially sweetened prospect of instant wealth--not after herding a dot-corn startup through to IP0，but on Tuesday?④
Seriously，why can’t we j ust say that buying lottery tickets is stupid?Human beings are stupid，ftom time to time—it shouldn’t be so surprising a hypothesis．
Unsurprisingly，the human brain doesn’t d0 64一bit floating-point arithmetic．a(chǎn)nd it can’t devalue the emotional force of a pleasant anticipation by a factor of 0．00000001 without dropping the line of reasoning entirely．Unsurprisingly，many people don’t realize that a numerical calculation of expected utility ought to override or replace their imprecise financial instincts，and instead treat the calculation as merely one argument to be balanced against their pleasant anticipations--an emotionally weak argument， since it’s made up of mere squiggles on paper，instead of visions of fabulous wealth．
This seems sufficient to explain the popularity of lotteries．Why do so many arguers feel impelled to defend this classic form of self-destruction?
This seems rather extreme．The human brain is wired to feel many irrational desires，like love，and the yearning to produce a squalling mess of an infant that will hoover up all your available cash，plus10％，for the foreseeable future．⑥We don’t try to edit those out．Given that the human being is irrationally unable to discount a potential pleasure down by the exact expected probability，shouldn’t we exploit this trait in order to cheaply produce large utility gains?⑦[458 words]
1．The supporters of lottery argue that______．
A．it is a waste of hope to buy lottery to become rich
B．a(chǎn)nyone can expect to become wealthy by buyin9 10ttery
C．it is inexpensive to fantasize being rich by buying lottery
D．only those who can’t do math waste their money on lottery
2．By sayin9“But isn’t that a waste of hope?”Eliezer Yudkowsky means that______．
A．few people fantasize wealth arriving easily
B．buying lottery isn’t necessarily a waste of hope
C．10ttery is a fantasy with little real probability to realize
D．your future shouldn’t be decided by random lottery balls
3．By referring t0“herding a dot—com startup through to IP0”，the author intends to show that______．
A．no wealth can arrive without perseverin9，and conscientious effort
B．10ttery is something worth trying for anyone who dreams to be wealthy
C．the pleasant fantasy can never compete with the prospect of instant wealth
D．the fantasy of things with real probability is less desirable than that of instant wealth
4．Aecording to the text，many people argue for lotteries because______．
A．they are born with imprecise financial instincts
B．becoming wealthy instantly is more than probable
C．the human brain doesn’t do complicated arithmetic
D．they would rather think emotionally than logically
5．The author believes that lotteries______．
A．a(chǎn)re nothing but fl popular form of self-destruction
B．serves as a potential pleasure for irrational people
C．reflect many irrational desires of the human brain
D．will hoover up all your available cash for the future
Over at Overcoming Bias．Eliezer Yudkowsky says“But isn’t that a waste of hope?”
But consider exactly what this implies．It would mean that you’re occupying your valuable brain with a fantasy whose real probability is nearly zer0——a tiny line of likelihood which you，yourself，can do nothing to realize．The lottery balls will decide your future．The fantasy is of wealth that arrives without effort--without conscientiousness，learnin9，charisma，or even patience．
Which makes the lottery another kind of sink：a sink of emotional energy．It encourages people to invest their dreams，their hopes for a better future，into an infinitesimal probability．If not for the lottery，maybe they would fantasize about going to technical school，or opening their own business，or getting a promotion at work--things they might be able to actually d0，hopes that would make them want to become stronger．④Their dreaming brains might，in the 20th visualization of the pleasant fantasy， notice a way to really do it．Isn’t that what dreams and brains are for?But how can such reality-limited fare compete with the artificially sweetened prospect of instant wealth--not after herding a dot-corn startup through to IP0，but on Tuesday?④
Seriously，why can’t we j ust say that buying lottery tickets is stupid?Human beings are stupid，ftom time to time—it shouldn’t be so surprising a hypothesis．
Unsurprisingly，the human brain doesn’t d0 64一bit floating-point arithmetic．a(chǎn)nd it can’t devalue the emotional force of a pleasant anticipation by a factor of 0．00000001 without dropping the line of reasoning entirely．Unsurprisingly，many people don’t realize that a numerical calculation of expected utility ought to override or replace their imprecise financial instincts，and instead treat the calculation as merely one argument to be balanced against their pleasant anticipations--an emotionally weak argument， since it’s made up of mere squiggles on paper，instead of visions of fabulous wealth．
This seems sufficient to explain the popularity of lotteries．Why do so many arguers feel impelled to defend this classic form of self-destruction?
This seems rather extreme．The human brain is wired to feel many irrational desires，like love，and the yearning to produce a squalling mess of an infant that will hoover up all your available cash，plus10％，for the foreseeable future．⑥We don’t try to edit those out．Given that the human being is irrationally unable to discount a potential pleasure down by the exact expected probability，shouldn’t we exploit this trait in order to cheaply produce large utility gains?⑦[458 words]
1．The supporters of lottery argue that______．
A．it is a waste of hope to buy lottery to become rich
B．a(chǎn)nyone can expect to become wealthy by buyin9 10ttery
C．it is inexpensive to fantasize being rich by buying lottery
D．only those who can’t do math waste their money on lottery
2．By sayin9“But isn’t that a waste of hope?”Eliezer Yudkowsky means that______．
A．few people fantasize wealth arriving easily
B．buying lottery isn’t necessarily a waste of hope
C．10ttery is a fantasy with little real probability to realize
D．your future shouldn’t be decided by random lottery balls
3．By referring t0“herding a dot—com startup through to IP0”，the author intends to show that______．
A．no wealth can arrive without perseverin9，and conscientious effort
B．10ttery is something worth trying for anyone who dreams to be wealthy
C．the pleasant fantasy can never compete with the prospect of instant wealth
D．the fantasy of things with real probability is less desirable than that of instant wealth
4．Aecording to the text，many people argue for lotteries because______．
A．they are born with imprecise financial instincts
B．becoming wealthy instantly is more than probable
C．the human brain doesn’t do complicated arithmetic
D．they would rather think emotionally than logically
5．The author believes that lotteries______．
A．a(chǎn)re nothing but fl popular form of self-destruction
B．serves as a potential pleasure for irrational people
C．reflect many irrational desires of the human brain
D．will hoover up all your available cash for the future