I do whatever I'm being influenced into doing.
This is a fact.
You can argue all you like about what I should do, but what I will do is already decided, and isn't influenced by my thoughts, my rationality, or anything else.
All the information needed to determine what I will do is in the lesion/machine.
Applying rationality to a scenario where the agent is by definition incapable of rationality is just plain silly.
Do you think that in real life you are exempt from the laws of physics?
If not, does that mean that "what you will do is already decided"? That you don't have to make a decision? That you are "incapable of rationality"?
This is part of a sequence titled "An introduction to decision theory". The previous post was Newcomb's Problem: A problem for Causal Decision Theories
For various reasons I've decided to finish this sequence on a seperate blog. This is principally because there were a large number of people who seemed to feel that this sequence either wasn't up to the Less Wrong standard or felt that it was simply covering ground that had already been covered on Less Wrong.
The decision to post it on another blog rather than simply discontinuing it came down to the fact that other people seemed to feel that the sequence had value. Those people can continue reading it at "The Smoking Lesion: A problem for evidential decision theory".
Alternatively, there is a sequence index available: Less Wrong and decision theory: sequence index