Stuart_Armstrong comments on The Blackmail Equation - Less Wrong

13 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 10 March 2010 02:46PM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 10 March 2010 09:19:43PM *  2 points [-]

I'm staying out of this discussion mainly because I'm incredibly confused about acausal/timeless/counterfactual trade/blackmail. Eliezer gave a small presentation at the recent decision theory mini-workshop on his ideas but unlike Stuart I'm pretty sure I don't understand it. I've been told there are also some very rough notes/drafts on related ideas written by a couple of individuals floating around SIAI and FHI, but so far I have been unsuccessful in getting access to them.

ETA: I should mention that the workshop was very enjoyable and I greatly appreciate SIAI's efforts in setting it up, even though I came out more confused than I did going in. That just means I wasn't confused nearly enough previously. :)

Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 10 March 2010 09:57:19PM 1 point [-]

but unlike Stuart I'm pretty sure I don't understand it.

Sigh... you may be the wiser of the two of us.

I understand certain formal models that ressemble the blackmail problem, but have a sloppy understanding of the exact conditions where they apply. Will edit the post to insert the formal model.