Comment on Rationality is Systematized Winning

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 10:56:07 GMT

In Newcomb's problem you're the boss, e.g. you can assign yourself a suitable utility function beforehand to keep the million and screw the thousand. Not so in voting - no matter what you think, other people won't change. They don't have anything conditioned on the outcome of your thought process, as in Newcomb's. No, not even if "people thinking like you" are a bloc. You still can't influence them. It's a coordination game, not Newcomb's.

Your reasoning resembles the "twins fallacy" in the Prisoner's Dilemma: the idea that just by choosing to cooperate you can magically force your identical partner to do the same. Come to think of it, PD sounds like a better model for voting to me.

Update: Eliezer seems to think PD and Newcomb's are related. Not sure why.

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