While on the one hand I completely agree with you given your starting premises, I don’t necessarily think we’re in quite the zero information situation you describe. For example, it is pretty well accepted (even amongst people who don’t think cryo will work) that simply freezing yourself without cryopreservant lowers your chance of revivification. This is a pretty important consensus since cryopreservant is highly toxic, but we extrapolate from current trends and conclude, “Curing poisoning is probably an easier task than reconstructing information destroyed by entropy, so I should adopt the ‘cryopreservant’ branch of strategy-space”. This indicates we don’t really have no information about the correct cryo strategy; though I totally accept your weaker claim that I seem to demand much MORE information than we can reasonably be expected to possess.
I think we’re in a situation more like a friend ringing up and says, “We’re going to play Ticket to Ride tonight; it’s like Monopoly only better”. We don’t have enough information to decide whether we want to be the top hat or the battleship (which is a meaningless question anyway since the answer is always ‘top hat’), but we might have enough information to begin to say, “On my first turn I will study the layout of the board carefully (rather than act quickly)” and “I will attempt to remain on good terms with the other players insofar as they can hurt me and I cannot overwhelmingly hurt them” or even “It is unlikely this game will involve serious roleplay. I will not put on my robe and wizard hat”. None of these are enough to guarentee a win, but neither are they trivial realisations; I think it is reasonable to believe probability theory, human nature and my own utility function will not change dramatically in the time it takes me to be revivified, so basing strategy on these characteristics seems worthwhile.
I don’t necessarily think we’re in quite the zero information situation you describe.
I didn’t describe a zero information situation. Note that I said “you are told some of the rules but not all of them.”
I think we’re in a situation more like a friend ringing up and says, “We’re going to play Ticket to Ride tonight; it’s like Monopoly only better”.
How is this different from knowing some of the rules but not all of them?
Curing poisoning is probably an easier task than reconstructing information destroyed by entropy, so I should adopt the ‘cryopreservant’ branch of strategy-space”.
I would agree that this is probably a good strategy but I would not categorize it as “highly refined.”
While on the one hand I completely agree with you given your starting premises, I don’t necessarily think we’re in quite the zero information situation you describe. For example, it is pretty well accepted (even amongst people who don’t think cryo will work) that simply freezing yourself without cryopreservant lowers your chance of revivification. This is a pretty important consensus since cryopreservant is highly toxic, but we extrapolate from current trends and conclude, “Curing poisoning is probably an easier task than reconstructing information destroyed by entropy, so I should adopt the ‘cryopreservant’ branch of strategy-space”. This indicates we don’t really have no information about the correct cryo strategy; though I totally accept your weaker claim that I seem to demand much MORE information than we can reasonably be expected to possess.
I think we’re in a situation more like a friend ringing up and says, “We’re going to play Ticket to Ride tonight; it’s like Monopoly only better”. We don’t have enough information to decide whether we want to be the top hat or the battleship (which is a meaningless question anyway since the answer is always ‘top hat’), but we might have enough information to begin to say, “On my first turn I will study the layout of the board carefully (rather than act quickly)” and “I will attempt to remain on good terms with the other players insofar as they can hurt me and I cannot overwhelmingly hurt them” or even “It is unlikely this game will involve serious roleplay. I will not put on my robe and wizard hat”. None of these are enough to guarentee a win, but neither are they trivial realisations; I think it is reasonable to believe probability theory, human nature and my own utility function will not change dramatically in the time it takes me to be revivified, so basing strategy on these characteristics seems worthwhile.
I didn’t describe a zero information situation. Note that I said “you are told some of the rules but not all of them.”
How is this different from knowing some of the rules but not all of them?
I would agree that this is probably a good strategy but I would not categorize it as “highly refined.”