ArisKatsaris 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: ArisKatsaris 07 February 2011 06:58:04PM *  0 points [-]

So you think that one-boxing is correct in the regular version of Newcomb's paradox but incorrect in the 'transparent boxes' version?

Not quite. Thinking it over, what I'm saying is that one-boxing in transparent Newcomb requires a level of committment that's different in kind to the level of commitment required by normal Newcomb. Here's why:

  • Our primary goal is to get a box filled with $1.000.000

  • In normal Newcomb, we can succeed in this by committing to taking the opaque box. Therefore we just have to trust Omega's predictive capabilities were good enough to predict us one-boxing, so that the opaque box IS the box with $1.000.000

  • In transparent Newcomb, we can succeed in getting a box filled with $1.000.000 only by committing to take an empty box instead if an empty box appears.Unless our senses are deluding us (e.g. simulation), this is a logical impossibility. So we must commit to a logical impossibility, which being a logical impossibility should never happen.

So normal Newcomb just requires a bit of trust in Omega's abilities, while transparent Newcomb requires committing to a logical impossibility (that the empty box is the filled box). Or perhaps altering your utility function so that you no longer want money-filled boxes.

Comment author: HonoreDB 07 February 2011 07:20:41PM 0 points [-]

Note that this particular response to transparent Newcomb doesn't apply to the Prometheus variant, since you never see the empty box.

Comment author: ArisKatsaris 07 February 2011 07:44:57PM 0 points [-]

In the Prometheus variant we see we exist. I really can't take the Prometheus variant at all seriously, nor do I believe I should.