An unusual answer to Newcomb's problem:
I asked a friend recently what he would do if encountering Newcomb's problem. Instead of giving either of the standard answer, he immediately attempted to create a paradoxical outcome and, as far as I can tell, succeeded. He claims that he would look inside the possibly-a-million-dollars box and do the following: If the box contains a million dollars, take both boxes. If the box contains nothing, take only that box (the empty one).
What would Omega do if he predicted this behavior or is this somehow not allowed in the problem setup?
There actually is a variant where you're allowed to look into the boxes - Newcomb's problem with transparent boxes.
And yes, it is undefined if you apply the same rules. However, there are two ways to re-define it.
1: Reduce the scope of the inputs. For example, Omega could operate on the following program: "If the contestant would take only one box when the million dollars is there, put the million dollars there." Before, Omega was looking at both situations, and now it's only looking at one.
2: Increase the scope of the program. There are two ...
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