Omega lets me decide to take only one box after meeting Omega, when I have already updated on the fact that Omega exists, and so I have much better knowledge about which sort of god I’m likely to encounter.
In what sense can you update? Updating is about following a plan, not about deciding on a plan. You already know that it’s possible to observe anything, you don’t learn anything new about environment by observing any given thing. There could be a deep connection between updating and logical uncertainty that makes it a good plan to update, but it’s not obvious what it is.
Intuitively, the notion of updating a map of fixed reality makes sense, but in the context of decision-making, formalization in full generality proves elusive, even unnecessary, so far.
By making a choice, you control the truth value of certain statements—statements about your decision-making algorithm and about mathematical objects depending on your algorithm. Only some of these mathematical objects are part of the “real world”. Observations affect what choices you make (“updating is about following a plan”), but you must have decided beforehand what consequences you want to establish (“[updating is] not about deciding on a plan”). You could have decided beforehand to care only about mathematical structures that are “real”, but what characterizes those structures apart from the fact that you care about them?
In what sense can you update? Updating is about following a plan, not about deciding on a plan. You already know that it’s possible to observe anything, you don’t learn anything new about environment by observing any given thing. There could be a deep connection between updating and logical uncertainty that makes it a good plan to update, but it’s not obvious what it is.
Huh? Updating is just about updating your map. (?) The next sentence I didn’t understand the reasoning of, could you expand?
Intuitively, the notion of updating a map of fixed reality makes sense, but in the context of decision-making, formalization in full generality proves elusive, even unnecessary, so far.
By making a choice, you control the truth value of certain statements—statements about your decision-making algorithm and about mathematical objects depending on your algorithm. Only some of these mathematical objects are part of the “real world”. Observations affect what choices you make (“updating is about following a plan”), but you must have decided beforehand what consequences you want to establish (“[updating is] not about deciding on a plan”). You could have decided beforehand to care only about mathematical structures that are “real”, but what characterizes those structures apart from the fact that you care about them?
Vladimir talks more about his crazy idea in this comment.