The Ultimate Strategy Question

[Desardes]

"There are 23 prisoners that are moved to a new Penetentiary <i don't know...Alkatraz> and in this new prison there's a prison ward who likes playing alot of games....
The prison ward tells them that he controls the prison in a "weird" system and that he will play a small game with them and if the prisoners show alot of team work and strategy, he'll let 'em go....but if they lose, they stay forever.
The game is this. Each prisoner will be isolated from each other and confined into seperate quarters without knowing where the other is. That day, the prison ward will take each one out of their room <them the prisoners not knowing if he's the first one or not> and willt take them to a small room which has nothing except two switches. They can either go up or down <not connected to any light or anything of course> and to the least and most, he's gotta touch one. <So he can't refuse to touch one nor can he switch more than twice>. Then that prisoner will be taken back to his room but the prison ward has full liberty to pick any of the prisoners more than once, many a number of times in a row and so on, etc. <But to the least 2 times>. He, the prison gaurd, will continue to do this <be it more than one day; even a year> until all of the prisoners have finally entered that room. But when one of the prisoners finally looks up and tells the prison ward saying :Yes, everyone has already gone. Then the prison ward dude will let 'em all go.

What's their game plan?

[Desardes]

No, it can be for as long as it takes, be it a year, two years or whatever....and there's two switches <binary> and can go up or down and that's it.....
and even if ALL 23 prisoners are already picked it doesn't mean the prison ward is going to stop. He's gonna keep doing it until someone touches one of the switches and declares that ALL 23 prisoners have been picked and stuff.

[Desardes]

There is one thing that i forgot to tell you and that is that the starting position of the switches aren't told to the prisoners. And remember tha a prisoner doesn't know if he was the 1st person or not. He could have been first or he could have been last.
So their strategy is to be able to make many plans for many different combinations......

[Desardes]

it may have not been clarified enough in detail before, but i said at least two times into the room but not once and it can even be 10 or even twenty times at random parts of the day or year.

[StickyPeas]

call me thick but i still dont understand the question!! :scratch::scratch:

[Desardes]

Oneshot, answering that question, it proves that you're worthy of law school.....that's the motivation and as i can see, you're up for it.

[peace2u]

if each one makes a mark on the wall, only once of-course, then flips the stupid switch anyway he likes, When a prisoner sees 23 marks on the wall, he will know that everyone has come in.

[Desardes]

yeah, you nailed it oneshot.