This is out there but I want a serious answer if possible, here is the scenario : You are part of the military, you position is high up enough that you are in full command of all the soldiers in a certain area lets say a country. The fight in this country is massive and brutal, there is engagements with enemies daily and in great numbers. The enemy is part of an alliance of nations but your country is fighting just that one enemy, by which I mean the alliance is ignoring the conflict and letting your country and the enemies country duke it out. One day after a massive assault on your headquarters your intelligence specialists have stumbled across a piece of information so important that should it be relayed back to your country it will change the course of the world itself, maybe the alliance has been planning some world domination shit and you managed to get the plans that would stop it. Should this intelligence not reach your superiors it is very likely that a massive chunk of the worlds population will be killed off everyone back in your home country for sure and also everyone not part of the opposition's alliance, it's very important that it should be relayed in time as it will be meaningless should it not be relayed at the time you got it, however your only means of communication can only be used once. You either request backup or choose to relay the information. Should you ask for backup you an your men will be saved and you will maintain control of your headquarters but the information will lose it's value because it will be too late, in this case a second would be too late. Should you pass on the information you and your troops will be lost for certain at the hands of some people who are very likely to torture you for knowledge and will inevitably kill you all but your country will have been alerted in time to have a chance (50%) to save itself and everyone not in the oppositions alliance. Try to position yourself in this situation what would you choose to do? There is only these two options none other. If you feel it's too long and won't read it don't bother a short version will lack a lot of what I want answered.
Seems pretty straight forward. If the information loses its value you are dead anyway. So really, both choices you die, but one of the choices not everyone dies as well. So I pick option three. I kill my intelligence specialist and join the opposing side.
Unhelpful, let's imagine you got a special futuristic chip installed deep on your head which is impossible to take out without dying and should you ever contemplate betrayal your knocking will go boom.
Yeah I could have asked would you pass important information that would save your country at the risk of your death but it doesn't help in the situation I need input in.
why cant you just add the sentence "yo guys, we need some help here man", onto the intelligence you send? what i mean is why cant you send the request and intel as part of the same one message. you could add a period or a blank line in between them.
I'l pass the information after my troops are killed i'l commit suicide to avoid passing information i have..?
Umm let's say the means of relaying the information can only pass on a certain amount of words and you need all the words in the intelligence for it to make sense.
Uhm that make the choice i choose my soldiers over the country useless ... Anyway soldiers are meant to die for the civilians, thats what they get paid for.
You can't wait the information is only valuable the moment you received it should you wait a second longer that it would take for it to be passed on it would be meaningless.
You are also going to get killed and probably tortured badly because you are the highest up in there so you got all the juicy info.
So, what, you can't just give the info in the same message as the backup request? "Hello, we need help... And also there's a plot to take over the world"
So for anyone else who doesn't want to read the OP: A) You do a good thing but die B) You save yourself instead, fuck everyone else. OP tried to make it complicated and leaves all kinds of questions and loopholes, just focus on the dichotomy and don't ask for details. 'kay? My personal choice would be A, but only as an absolute last resort - obviously I'd do anything I could to get myself out of that situation. My men, too, if I was in charge of others.
Nope the plans or whatever information you got are the only thing that will fit in the message and you need all the space for the information, either that or you use the space to ask for reinforcements in which case the information will not be useful.
So surrendering and surviving as prisoners of war isn't an option? I also assume that sending everything in one message isn't an option. In that case, I would send the information immediately and then retreat. Losses may be huge, but some of my men and I would still survive to fight another day rather than continue to fight in a battle we've already lost. If retreat isn't an option, then I'll send the information, see the battle to its end, and kill everyone who knows we've obtained the information, including myself.
You said they nuke most of the country so probably, my family and friends and if you can kill yourself, when you know that you get tortured and get killed anyway, you are truly useless
I agree with choice A but choice B entrails a little bit more imagine these soldiers are like your family, so they are really really close to you, I don't know imagine its a really though choice even if you are a selfish bastard.
Ya know, if this information expires a second after we get it, then what's the point of this dilemma? By the time you decide what to do you'll be dead anyways.