We're certainly agreed on that. I'm willing to go further -- I believe any mathematical conclusions that apply to self-modification (your definition) will apply to all possible actions. I don't think your definition carves out a part of the world that has any usefully special properties.
I disagree. "An ideal CDT agent that anticipates facing only action-determined problems will always choose not to self modify" is true "An ideal CDT agent that anticipates facing only action-determined problems will always choose not to do anything" is false.
I don't think your definition is well-defined either. Where's the important line between self-modification and making a toaster?
I'm not a hundred percent clear on this, and I'll be the first to admit that this is a problem and needs to fixed before the problem can be solved. From a very brief period of thought it seems to me a good line to draw is the point at which the new agent becomes more powerful, in the sense of optimization power, than the old one.
We appear to have no useful definition for the word. Time to stop using it, IMO.
I think the word points to something, and I have a feeling that something is the heart of the problem. Interestingly, in terms of mathematical decision theory self-modification seems quite well defined.
After some heat, we're starting to get light. This is good.
"An ideal CDT agent that anticipates facing only action-determined problems will always choose not to self modify" is true "An ideal CDT agent that anticipates facing only action-determined problems will always choose not to do anything" is false.
I'm not sure that's true. Imagine I'm an ideal CDT. I am in North America. If I wish to react to something that happens in China, there will be some lag. If I could deal with the situation better when there is no lag, I would b...
I don't know if this is a little too afar field for even a Discussion post, but people seemed to enjoy my previous articles (Girl Scouts financial filings, video game console insurance, philosophy of identity/abortion, & prediction market fees), so...
I recently wrote up an idea that has been bouncing around my head ever since I watched Death Note years ago - can we quantify Light Yagami's mistakes? Which mistake was the greatest? How could one do better? We can shed some light on the matter by examining DN with... basic information theory.
Presented for LessWrong's consideration: Death Note & Anonymity.