wedrifid comments on The Presumptuous Philosopher's Presumptuous Friend - Less Wrong
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By trivial argument (of the kind employed in algorithm complexity analysis and cryptography) that you can just toss a coin or do mental equivalent of it, any guaranteed probability nontrivially >.5, even by a ridiculously small margin, is impossible to achieve. Probability against a random human is entirely irrelevant - what Omega must do is probability against the most uncooperative human being nontrivially >.5, as you can choose to be maximally uncooperative if you wish to.
If we force determinism (what is cheating already), disable free will (as in ability to freely choose our answer only at the point we have to), and let Omega see our brain, it basically means that we have to decide before Omega, and have to tell Omega what we decided, what reverses causality, and collapses it into "Choose 1 or 2 boxes. Based on your decision Omega chooses what to put in them".
From the linked Wikipedia article:
That's basically it. It's ill-defined, and any serious formalization collapses it into either "you choose first, so one box", or "Omega chooses first, so two box" trivial problems.
The limit of how uncooperative you can be is determined by how much information can be stored in the quarks from which you are constituted. Omega can model these. Your recourse of uncooperativity is for your entire brain to be balanced such that your choice depends on quantum uncertainty. Omega then treats you the same way he treats any other jackass who tries to randomize with a quantum coin.
Geez! When did flipping a (provably) fair coin when faced with a tough dilemma, start being the sole domain of jackasses?
Geez! When did questioning the evilness of flipping a fair coin when faced with a tough dilemma, start being a good reason to mod someone down? :-P
Don't know. I was planning to just make a jibe at your exclusivity logic (some jackasses do therefore all who do...).
Make that two jibes. Perhaps the votes were actually a cringe response at the comma use. ;)
Well, you did kinda insinuate that flipping a coin makes you a jackass, which is kind of an extreme reaction to an unconventional approach to Newcomb's problem :-P
;) I'd make for a rather harsh Omega. If I was dropping my demi-divine goodies around I'd make it quite clear that if I predicted a randomization I'd booby trap the big box with a custard pie jack-in-a-box trap.
If I was somewhat more patient I'd just apply the natural extension, making the big box reward linearly dependent on the probabilities predicted. Then they can plot a graph of how much money they are wasting per probability they assign to making the stupid choice.
Wow, they sure are right about that "power corrupts" thing ;-)
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts... comically?