ata comments on Newcomb's Problem and Regret of Rationality - Less Wrong

64 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 31 January 2008 07:36PM

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Comment author: simplicio 06 March 2010 06:15:53AM 0 points [-]

My solution to the problem of the two boxes:

Flip a coin. If heads, both A & B. If tails, only A. (If the superintelligence can predict a coin flip, make it a radioactive decay or something. Eat quantum, Hal.)

In all seriousness, this is a very odd problem (I love it!). Of course two boxes is the rational solution - it's not as if post-facto cogitation is going to change anything. But the problem statement seems to imply that it is actually impossible for me to choose the choice I don't choose, i.e., choice is actually impossible.

Something is absurd here. I suspect it's the idea that my choice is totally predictable. There can be a random element to my choice if I so choose, which kills Omega's plan.

Comment author: ata 06 March 2010 10:01:25AM *  2 points [-]

What wedrifid said. See also Rationality is Systematized Winning and the section of What Do We Mean By "Rationality"? about "Instrumental Rationality", which is generally what we mean here when we talk about actions being rational or irrational. If you want to get more money, than the instrumentally rational action is the epistemically rational answer to the question "What course of action will cause me to get the most money?".

If you accept the premises of Omega thought experiments, then the right answer is one-boxing, period. If you don't accept the premises, it doesn't make sense for you to be answering it one way or the other.

Comment author: simplicio 06 March 2010 04:34:05PM 0 points [-]

I thought about this last night and also came to the conclusion that randomizing my choice would not "assume the worst" as I ought to.

And I fully accept that this is just a thought experiment & physics is a cheap way out. I will now take the premises or leave them. :)