Vladimir_Nesov comments on A model of UDT with a halting oracle - Less Wrong

41 Post author: cousin_it 18 December 2011 02:18PM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 18 December 2011 04:02:52PM *  8 points [-]

The basic idea is due to Vladimir Nesov and me.

(In the setting where there were no oracles, this problem was generally discussed on the decision theory list, with various conditions used to prove when intended moral arguments [A=A1=>U=U1] will in fact be proven by the agent (are agent-provable, not just provable). The "chicken rule" condition used here I figured out in explicit form sometime in April ("To avoid confusion, immediately perform any action that implies absurdity"), though I'm not sure anyone published an actual proof using this condition. A few days ago, cousin_it posted a thought experiment involving a Turing oracle, and I pointed out that using the chicken rule in this setting elicits a much nicer result.)

Comment author: cousin_it 18 December 2011 04:05:03PM *  3 points [-]

That's an accurate account, thanks for posting it here! I'm always worried about coming off as though I'm grabbing priority...

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 18 December 2011 04:13:07PM *  5 points [-]

Thanks for writing this up. I'm currently trying to repurpose my failed unpublished post draft from August (on acausal dependencies) to this result, to give a more systematic account of the problem it addresses, and describe the no-oracles case in more detail. Hope to get it done in about a week.

Edit: And posted, 2.5 months late.