What is Pascal's Mugging?

Pascal's Mugging is a thought experiment that highlights the challenges of decision-making under uncertainty, especially when considering extremely low probabilities with potentially huge rewards.

Explanation: The scenario imagines Blaise Pascal being approached by a mugger after leaving a pub. The mugger asks for the money in Pascal's wallet, promising that in return, he will come back the next day to give Pascal any finite amount of happiness or money Pascal could want. Despite the mugger's dubious claim, he argues that, based on Pascal's own logic of evaluating the probabilities of outcomes and their corresponding values, there's a non-zero chance that he could indeed fulfill his promise. This presents a dilemma where the rational decision could seem to involve accepting highly improbable claims simply because the hypothetical rewards are so high 1.

In essence, Pascal's Mugging is used to illustrate flaws or potential absurdities in decision-making frameworks that involve multiplying tiny probabilities by infinite or extremely large payoffs, leading to justifying actions that appear unreasonable or absurd.