timtyler comments on Desirable Dispositions and Rational Actions - Less Wrong

13 Post author: RichardChappell 17 August 2010 03:20AM

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Comment author: timtyler 17 August 2010 05:03:34PM *  0 points [-]

Seriously, Omega is not just counterfactual, he is impossible. Why do you guys keep asking us to believe so many impossible things before breakfast?

This Omega is not impossible.

It says: "Omega has been correct on each of 100 observed occasions so far".

Not particularly hard - if you pick on decision theorists who had previously publicly expressed an opinion on the subject.

Comment author: Perplexed 17 August 2010 06:27:42PM 0 points [-]

Ah! So I need to assign priors to three hypotheses. (1) Omega is a magician (i.e. illusion artist) (2) Omega had bribed people to lie about his past success. (3) He is what he claims.

So I assign a prior of zero probability to hypothesis #3, and cheerfully one-box using everyday decision theory.

Comment author: timtyler 17 August 2010 06:40:49PM *  1 point [-]

First: http://lesswrong.com/lw/mp/0_and_1_are_not_probabilities/

You don't seem to be entering into the spirit of the problem. You are "supposed" to reach the conclusion that there's a good chance that Omega can predict your actions in this domain pretty well - from what he knows about you - after reading the premise of the problem.

If you think that's not a practical possibility, then I recommend that you imagine yourself as a deterministic robot - where such a scenario becomes more believable - and then try the problem again.

Comment author: Perplexed 17 August 2010 09:03:10PM 1 point [-]

If I imagine myself as a deterministic robot, who knows that he is a deterministic robot, I am no longer able to maintain the illusion that I care about this problem.

Comment author: cousin_it 17 August 2010 09:10:09PM *  4 points [-]

Do you think you aren't a deterministic robot? Or that you are, but you don't know it?

Comment author: Perplexed 19 August 2010 01:43:10AM 1 point [-]

It is a quantum universe. So I would say that I am a stochastic robot. And Omega cannot predict my future actions.

Comment author: timtyler 17 August 2010 09:56:51PM *  5 points [-]

...then you need to imagine you made the robot, it is meeting Omega on your behalf - and that it then gives you all its winnings.

Comment author: TobyBartels 18 August 2010 05:41:56AM 4 points [-]

I like this version! Now the answer seems quite obvious.

In this case, I would design the robot to be a one-boxer. And I would harbour the secret hope that a stray cosmic ray will cause the robot to pick both boxes anyway.

Comment author: timtyler 18 August 2010 06:11:55AM *  2 points [-]

Yes - but you would still give its skull a lead-lining - and make use of redundancy to produce reliability...

Comment author: TobyBartels 18 August 2010 07:46:15AM 0 points [-]

Agreed.