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TheOtherDave comments on SotW: Be Specific - Less Wrong
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Genie's Folly
A near omnipotent being is offering you a single wish. It is known that the Genie will attempt to implement the wish in a way the results in a net decrease of utility for the wisher, but is bound by any constraints explicitly written into the wish. Write your wish in such a way that the Genie can only implement it in such a way that you have a net increase in utility. Bonus points if you wish for something related to a current problem you are solving; ie, I wish I ran a successful startup with x following properties, which avoids y pitfalls in z ways.
My response to this would be a blank sheet of paper, personally.
Wouldn't that give the genie unconstrained power to decrease your utility?
Perhaps, though it is not clear to me that the genie didn't have that power all along. Regardless, if I am confident that the Genie will attempt to implement my wish (should I make one) in a way that results in a net decrease of utility, but am not confident that it will attempt to decrease my utility in the absence of a wish, then I conclude that I do better not to wish (thereby possibly, but probably not, incurring the genie's ill will with no defense) than to wish (thereby definitely incurring the genie's ill will, which I can attempt to defend against by specifying explicit constraints). Sometimes the only winning move is not to play.
That seems like a fair approach.