JGWeissman comments on A problem with Timeless Decision Theory (TDT) - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Gary_Drescher 04 February 2010 06:47PM

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Comment author: Gary_Drescher 05 February 2010 02:12:29AM *  3 points [-]

I think this problem is based (at least in part) on an incoherence in the basic transparent box variant of Newcomb's problem.

If the subject of the problem will two-box if he sees the big box has the million dollars, but will one-box if he sees the big box is empty. Then there is no action Omega could take to satisfy the conditions of the problem.

The rules of the transparent-boxes problem (as specified in Good and Real) are: the predictor conducts a simulation that tentatively presumes there will be $1M in the large box, and then puts $1M in the box (for real) iff the simulation showed one-boxing. So the subject you describe gets an empty box and one-boxes, but that doesn't violate the conditions of the problem, which do not require the empty box to be predictive of the subject's choice.

Comment author: JGWeissman 05 February 2010 02:59:18AM 0 points [-]

Ah, I was working from different assumptions. That at least takes care of the basic clear box variant. I will have to think about the digit of pi variation again with this specification.