Manfred comments on Selfish preferences and self-modification - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Manfred 14 January 2015 08:42AM

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Comment author: Manfred 15 January 2015 03:52:01PM 1 point [-]

Hm, this points out to me that I could have made this post more stand-alone. The idea was that you eat the candy and experience a non-transferrable reward. But let me give an example of what I mean by selfish preferences.

If someone made a copy of me and said they could either take me hang-gliding, or take my copy, I'd prefer that I go hang-gliding. Selfishly :P

Comment author: Leonhart 15 January 2015 05:49:48PM 0 points [-]

Assuming we substitute something I actually want to do for hang-gliding...

("Not the most fun way to lose 1/116,000th of my measure, thanks!" say both copies, in stereo)

...and that I don't specifically want to avoid non-shared experiences, which I probably do...

("Why would we want to diverge faster, anyway?" say the copies, raising simultaneous eyebrows at Manfred)

...that's what coinflips are for!

(I take your point about non-transferability, but I claim that B-me would press the button even if it was impossible to share the profits.)

Comment author: Manfred 15 January 2015 08:59:30PM 0 points [-]

I think that's a totally okay preference structure to have (or to prefer with metapreferences or whatever).

Comment author: Leonhart 15 January 2015 09:46:35PM 0 points [-]

Delicious reinforcement! Thank you, friend.

Comment author: Gunnar_Zarncke 15 January 2015 04:51:24PM 0 points [-]

I'd throw dice and select based on outcome. Thereby everybody of both me's get half a hang-glide (on average).

But then I guess I'd work together with clones of myself well to. Quite well. Better than with most other people. Not everybody I know would. Some claimed they couldn't live together with another instance of themselves.