wedrifid comments on Don't be Pathologically Mugged! - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (30)
That is not Omega. Omega as presented for the purpose of Newcomblike problems is known, for the sake of the hypothetical, to be trustworthy. He does not deceive us about our utility payoffs. And yes, that does include being technically truthful but leaving off a whole utility-payoff category. If the is not clear to the audience from the description given in the problem definition then the problem definition needs to be more pedantic.
Consider, for example, Vladmir's original definition of counterfactual mugging. He throws in "the Omega is also known to be absolutely honest and trustworthy, no word-twisting, so the facts are really as it says". It should be fairly clear to the reader that 'unbeknownst to you" is to be considered out of scope of the exercise.
If you want a demigod who plays games that happen to involve him making us have an inaccurate knowledge of his arbitrary utility payoffs then you need to invent a new name.
None of Parfit's Hitch-hiker, Prisoner's Dilemma, Newcomb's or Counterfactual Mugging rely on the kind of 'payoff for being irrational' difficulties you present. They are all instances where a decision algorithm that wins will also win in the regular situations that they caricaturize.