Mission Impossible? Not a movie. Not a TV show. The Villages (TV)
 

You and one other person can win a very large monetary prize.

The conditions of the contest

• The two of you must meet somewhere in The Villages and exchange a token that you will be given.
• You have only 24 hours to meet.
• You may not communicate with each other in any way prior to meeting.
• After meeting, you will each present the token that you received from the other contestant to the contest organizer as proof of your meeting.

How do you intend to give yourself the best chance to win?

"The only way to win is not to play" (The WOPR computer, from "War Games")

Insufficient information in the prompt.

Do you even get to know who the other person is? How else would one identify with whom the token must be exchanged? I would try two options. I can either hope for a random meetup at a popular and heavily attended event, such as Rocky N The Rollers at a town square, or since I cannot communicate prior to the meeting, I'd look them up in the directory and show up at their doorstep.

Interesting. Over 300 views. One punt. And one claim that there is not enough information - false. But nevertheless, he did come up with a strategy.

Yes. The problem / game can't be played well with System 1 thinking, which probably represents the bulk of replies on TOTV, excepting the posts with known solutions to problems. I actually expected more than 1% participation.

? And the prize is ...

If it matters, set an amount. Split 2 ways.

Since I have a token, I design a system to be able to sense this token, then using my sensor I find the other token and we swap and enjoy the prize.

Alternative: my spies (mission impossible types) have already found the sponsor, and the 2 tokens were tagged, so the one that I do not get will be traceable with my highly specialized tracker.

After another scotch I will probably have a few more very far fetched ideas.

The rules are problematic: You may not communicate with each other in any way before you meet. So, if you stood along a road, or in a town square, with a sign, would this violate that rule? Likewise, could you take out an ad in the paper? Hire an airplane to tow a banner? Some might argue you could not even say hello to another person randomly. Game rules must be explicit and precise.

The rules may be problematic for you, or others. That does not change them.

communicate
intransitive verb
To convey information about; make known; impart.

Yes. You seem to understand the definition of communicate. Obviously, in your examples, if the other person becomes aware, you have violated the conditions. If not, then it does not seem to have helped, and you have risked losing.

Reeks of a scam. REEKS

Dude, we are retired, we don't care as much about challenges as we did while working. We are now in the enjoyment stage prior to the dirt nap.

I was to told that it would take awhile to drop my desire to keep working ,and its true, a year on and less and less interested in mental challenges. .

I'd think being in the most crowded areas over the course of the day would give you the best odds. Might be able to enlist some help asking people if they have the token. Wouldn't be particularly good odds though.

Joe

I’d probably attach it to a hat so it would be visible to my gaming partner. Then I’d
Go to the square that has the best band that evening.

Concur, this sucks and is no longer interesting, intriguing, or fun. Maybe the Dungeon Master will explain or do away with these types of posts. Either is fine with me.

Whatever the odds might be, your expected value of that strategy is much better than the expected value of the non-players! :)

Get the organizer to tell you who the other person is.

Thomas Schelling first asked a question like this at Yale in 1960. In his version, the meeting was to take place in NYC. He asked it in a class where students most likely felt strongly about coming up with intelligent answers.

Key points.

1. You must assume that the other person wants to win.
2. Like you, the other person needs to assume that you want to win.
3. The two of you will need to cooperate in some way even absent explicit communication.
4. Each must assume that the other player has some knowledge of NYC.
5. The time to meet is in some way limited, so appearing at the same place simultaneously is important.
6. If you wander and the other stays in one place, it might help.
7. But, you have no way to know whether the other person will wander, too.

Apparently, at that time, the winning strategy was to go to the Information Desk at Grand Central Station. Schelling described the location as a "focal point". Today, he might have chosen "iconic".

I did not go to Yale. I was only in grade school at that time. But I was curious what the "iconic" location in The Villages might be.

@Neli57 and @ElDiableJoe seem like they were the only participants with much chance of winning. One chose a band to select a square. Probably if that band were not playing he would have chosen the band that he felt was most popular on that night. Perhaps those two would have met!

This idea arose from the study of strategic conflict and games that involve cooperation.

////

Hang out in the Villages Sumter Landing office while open and then at Sumter Landing. Have taped your token to an orange baseball cap while doing this.

I'd turn the token into a pinwheel, with each spoke of the pinwheel decorated with the words "PRIZE TOKEN!" in different colors. I'd affix the pinwheel to a rainbow hat, wear a dayglo yellow tee-shirt with the words PRIZE TOKEN STARBUCK's ON THE HOUR painted on it in violet, and ride a unicycle around Sumter Landing Town Square. And then, five minutes before the hour, I'd cycle over to Starbucks and just stand there looking like an abject moron until the designated time had passed, or the other person appeared, whichever came first.

Alternately, I would sell the token for 10% of the prize value. Since I get to make up that value, we'll call the total value 2 million bucks, split two ways. So I'd walk away with 200,000, and not have to actually do anything at all after that.