lackofcheese comments on Problematic Problems for TDT - Less Wrong

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

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Comment author: lackofcheese 24 June 2012 11:04:10PM *  1 point [-]

In your problem, TDT does indeed 2-box, but it's quite a different problem from the original one. Here's the main difference:

I ran a simulation of this problem

vs

I ran a simulation of Newcomb's problem

Comment author: loup-vaillant 25 June 2012 06:41:25AM 0 points [-]

Oh. So this is indeed a case of "If you're running TDT, I screw you, otherwise you walk free". The way I understand this, TDT one boxes because it should.

If TDT cannot perceive the difference between the original problem and the simulation, this is because it is actually the same problem. For all it knows, it could be in the simulation (the simulation argument would say it is). There is an infinite regress, solved by the fact that all agents in all simulation level will have taken the same decision, because they ran the same decision algorithm. If they all 2-box, they get $1000, while if they all 1-box, they get the million (and no more).

Now, if you replace "an agent running TDT" by "you" (like, a fork of you started from a snapshot taken 3 seconds ago), the correct answer is always to 1-box, because then the problem is equivalent to the actual Newcomb's problem.