I’m trying to define threat/blackmail or similar concepts in decision theory. In the two examples above, one seems a clear negative situation, the other doesn’t, and I can’t figure out what the difference is.
You need a different definition for ‘blackmail’ then. Action X might be beneficial to the blackmailer rather than negative in value and still be blackmail.
The whole point of this post is to find a formal definition of “something like blackmail” (maybe “threat” instead of “blackmail” would have been a bit better, but “threat” also means a lot of other different things).
I agree that maybe starting with an informal definition of “what is meant by ‘blackmail’ here” may have been better.
I’m trying to define threat/blackmail or similar concepts in decision theory. In the two examples above, one seems a clear negative situation, the other doesn’t, and I can’t figure out what the difference is.
You need a different definition for ‘blackmail’ then. Action X might be beneficial to the blackmailer rather than negative in value and still be blackmail.
The whole point of this post is to find a formal definition of “something like blackmail” (maybe “threat” instead of “blackmail” would have been a bit better, but “threat” also means a lot of other different things).
I agree that maybe starting with an informal definition of “what is meant by ‘blackmail’ here” may have been better.