dankane comments on Causal decision theory is unsatisfactory - Less Wrong

20 Post author: So8res 13 September 2014 05:05PM

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Comment author: dankane 16 September 2014 04:51:51PM 1 point [-]

Actually, I take it back. Depending on how you define things, UDT can still lose. Consider the following game:

I will clone you. One of the clones I paint red and the other I paint blue. The red clone I give $1000000 and the blue clone I fine $1000000. UDT clearly gets expectation 0 out of this. SMCDT however can replace its code with the following: If you are painted blue: wipe your hard drive If you are painted red: change your code back to standard SMCDT

Thus, SMCDT never actually has to play blue in this game, while UDT does.

Comment author: one_forward 16 September 2014 09:46:00PM 2 points [-]

You seem to be comparing SMCDT to a UDT agent that can't self-modify (or commit suicide). The self-modifying part is the only reason SMCDT wins here.

The ability to self-modify is clearly beneficial (if you have correct beliefs and act first), but it seems separate from the question of which decision theory to use.