Perplexed comments on You're in Newcomb's Box - Less Wrong

40 Post author: HonoreDB 05 February 2011 08:46PM

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Comment author: Perplexed 01 February 2011 10:44:59PM *  8 points [-]

Q: Why do I exist?
A: Because you're going to have lots of children.

Just wrong. The only thing close to this with even a little bit of poetic truth would be that I exist because Azathoth, being familiar with my design, rationally expects me to have lots of children.

a mutually beneficial trade with Azathoth (Azathoth creates you; you increase your reproductive fitness in exchange)

At first I reacted negatively to this idea, but eventually I realized that the argument has the same acausal trade structure as the rest of the EDT-inspired nonsense around here. My voluntary reproductive efforts seem to be evidence about my genetic makeup, and that genetic makeup is in a causal relationship with my existence. So that is not what is wrong with this idea.

The trouble is that
1. Azathoth has already given me what I want - my existence.
2. My ancestral history has already given Azathoth the evidence that it wants - any reproductive behavior that I indulge in is superfluous to my own existence (though Azathoth may well take it into account in deciding whether to grant existence to my children).