Kevin Simler

Is there a principled distinction between suicide-bombing and falling on a grenade to save your squad?

@KevinSimler temporally and causally, yes, very different. The common element is willingness to self-sacrifice for one's tribe, sure.

@KevinSimler but the beneficial outcome to the tribe of the grenade-dive is near-certain, d/t causal and temporal proximity

@KevinSimler the long tail there being, what good could the dead guy have done if he'd lived

@KevinSimler the suicide bombing is the opposite. All hope lies in the long tail, that it will matter somehow, somewhen, eventually

@KevinSimler this makes the grenade-dive quite sane, in a game theoretic sense. Suicide bombing requires divine intervention in chaos theory

@CTZN5 Well, if a suicide bomber takes out enough "enemies," his cost:benefit ratio can be better than the average enlistee's.