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Vladimir_Nesov comments on Can anyone explain to me why CDT two-boxes? - Less Wrong Discussion
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It's not completely clear what "backward causality" (or any causality, outside the typical contexts) means, so maybe it can exist. Better to either ignore the concept in this context (as it doesn't seem relevant) or taboo/clarify it.
The meaning of what Andreas was saying was sufficiently clear. He means "you know, stuff like flipping time travel and changing the goddamn past". Trying to taboo causality and sending everyone off to read Pearl would be a distraction. Possibly a more interesting distraction than another "CDT one boxes! Oh, um.... wait... No, Newcomb's doesn't exist. Err... I mean CDT two boxes and it is right to do so so there!" conversation but not an overwhelmingly relevant one.
We are in a certain sense talking about determining the past, the distinction is between shared structure (as in, the predictor has your source code) and time machines. The main problem seems to be unwillingness to carefully consider the meaning of implausible hypotheticals, and continued distraction by the object level dispute doesn't seem to help.
("Changing" vs. "determining" point should probably be discussed in the context of the future, where implausibility and fiction are less of a distraction.)