Nisan comments on Politics as Charity - Less Wrong

29 Post author: CarlShulman 23 September 2010 05:33AM

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Comment author: Nisan 23 September 2010 10:43:14PM 5 points [-]

If my decision process uses UDT-type reasoning, do I have a chance of acausally influencing people who don't know about UDT-type reasoning?

Comment author: Bongo 24 September 2010 11:48:05AM * 3 points [-]

#lesswrong

<a> There's new grass planted in your apartment block's front yard. If everyone walks over it, it will die, but if just a couple of people walk over it, it'll be okay. Your way would be shorter if you walked over the grass. (Tragedy of the commons situation),
<a> And you've read about funky decision theories on Less Wrong, and decide to avoid the grass because you've decided that you follow TDT.
<a> Does this acausally make the other residents avoid the grass as well because they decide in approximately the same way when encountering the grass, or does it not because they haven't even heard of TDT?
<a> What if all the residents were LW posters??

Comment author: gwern 24 September 2010 11:58:48AM 1 point [-]

One thing I've long wondered: in cases like these is TDT equivalent to your mom saying 'and what if everyone walked on the grass?'

Comment author: Bongo 25 September 2010 08:34:00PM 1 point [-]

I think that's exactly what you would go around asking yourself if you were a TDT-using human in a community of TDT-using humans.

Comment author: wedrifid 24 September 2010 06:19:21PM 1 point [-]

No, although it is often used in that sort of way.

Comment author: orthonormal 24 September 2010 12:27:15AM 1 point [-]

This is actually a good question. Gary Drescher seems to think you can, but I think Eliezer is more skeptical.

Comment author: Nisan 24 September 2010 12:38:33AM 0 points [-]

Is this a topic in Good and Real?

Comment author: orthonormal 24 September 2010 01:07:43AM 0 points [-]

Yes– it's in the account of ethics, near the end.