why would I pull the lever in that case?

also 1/2^(-n) is just 2ⁿ

the only downside of not pulling the lever is that the machine, if it ever finishes, may take significantly longer to do so

or am I missing something?

otherwise very cool crossover of halting problem and trolley problem, good stuff

Was the lever track supposed to be a supertask? Cuz 1/(2^-n ) is just 2^n , so each instruction takes exponentially longer to execute, so unless the complex turning machine halts in like a single instruction, lever guy is gonna die 100%

But non-lever guy has the potential to either die after a very decent while, or never at all, and lever guy is safe too if i don't pull the lever