army1987 comments on Problematic Problems for TDT - Less Wrong

36 Post author: drnickbone 29 May 2012 03:41PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 28 May 2012 09:14:09AM 1 point [-]

I think TDT reduces to CDT if there's no other agent with similar or greater intelligence than you around. (You also mustn't have any dynamical inconsistency such as akrasia, otherwise your future and past selves count as ‘other’ as well.) So I don't think it'd make much of a difference for a singleton -- but I'd rather use an RDT just in case.

Comment author: wedrifid 28 May 2012 02:27:21PM 1 point [-]

I think TDT reduces to CDT if there's no other agent with similar or greater intelligence than you around.

It isn't the absolute level of intelligence that is required, but rather that the other agent is capable of making a specific kind of reasoning. Even this can be relaxed to things that can only dubiously be said to qualify as being classed "agent". The requirement is that some aspect of the environment has (utility-relevant) behavior that is entangled with the output of the decision to be made in a way that is other than a forward in time causal influence. This almost always implies that some agent is involved but that need not necessarily be the case.

Caveat: Maybe TDT is dumber than I remember and artificially limits itself in a way that is relevant here. I'm more comfortable making assertions about what a correct decision theory would do than about what some specific attempt to specify a decision theory would do.

but I'd rather use an RDT just in case.

You make me happy! RDT!