summerstay comments on The Ultimate Newcomb's Problem - Less Wrong

18 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 10 September 2013 02:03AM

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Comment author: summerstay 10 September 2013 02:36:20PM *  1 point [-]

I think most of the commenters aren't getting that this is a parody. Edit: It turns out I was wrong.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 10 September 2013 02:48:04PM 11 points [-]

"Unlike these other highly-contrived hypothetical scenarios we invent to test extreme corner-cases of our reasoning, this highly-contrived hypothetical scenario is a parody. If you ever find yourself in the others, you have to take it seriously, but if you find yourself in this one, you are under no such obligation."

Comment author: summerstay 10 September 2013 03:03:20PM 1 point [-]

Yes, that's what I'm saying. The other ones are meant to prove a point. This one is just to make you laugh, just like the one it is named after. http://www.mindspring.com/~mfpatton/Tissues.htm

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 10 September 2013 03:18:40PM 2 points [-]

So if you found yourself in the unlikely scenario of a regular Newcomb's Problem, you have an answer for it; but if you found yourself in the unlikely scenario of this problem, you wouldn't feel obliged to be able to answer it?

Comment author: Ishaan 10 September 2013 05:41:37PM *  0 points [-]

Well... the linked Ultimate Trolley problem is a parody.I

f this is a parody, it's evidently interesting enough to think about anyway.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 10 September 2013 05:52:54PM *  1 point [-]

Can you explain why Eliezer's motives for writing it should limit what anyone else chooses to do with it?

ETA: Parent edited. This now makes less sense as a response.

Comment author: Ishaan 10 September 2013 08:02:52PM *  -1 points [-]

yeah, sorry. I realized that even though the first sentence on its own was a simple true statement, it might connotate that I thought that everyone who was taking it seriously was being silly when I really just meant to innocently point out some evidence that aligned with summerstay's opinion that it might be parody (or serious-but-parody-mimicking, or something). So I added a second sentence to disassociate myself from the connotation that might otherwise be inferred.

Comment author: orthonormal 11 September 2013 03:41:54AM 8 points [-]

I'm at the current MIRI workshop, and the Ultimate Newcomb's Problem is not a parody.