You think it's of any use in reality?
It's a counter-example to the back-then prevailing theory of decision making, which is a foundational discipline in AI. So yes, it has a very important use in reality.
In which sense do you use the word "prevailing"?
I am also not quite sure how is it a counter-example.
Newcomb's problem involves "choice". If you are not going to discard causality (which I'm not willing to do), the only sensible interpretation is that your choice when you are in front of the two boxes doesn't matter (or is predetermined, same thing). The choice that matters is the one you've made in the past when you picked your decision algorithm.
Given this, I come to the conclusion that you should pick your decision algorithm based on some improbable side-effect unknown to you at the time you were making the choice that matters.
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