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You aren't applying all possible logical reasoning about the situation (such as the characters recursive mental models of each other's mental models), unlike th

• vacri 11y ago
  I think you've missed my point. At low n, yes, that recursion works. But once you get to the point where you can see that each [other] blue-eye can see multiple blue-eyes, there's no real reason to start counting. There's nothing to logically deduce if the people aren't mentally counting, as keeping that mental count is a fundamental part of the algorithm. If n is 7, for example, then a blue-eyed tribesperson would see that the other blue-eyes can see [at least] the remaining 5. And as such, there is no reason to start counting. There's no "hey, that guy didn't do anything!" to start the process going, as there would be with low n. The algorithm is separated from it's starting conditions. Also, the characters are definitively not 'completely rational', as they're also described as being 'devout' :)