If you play a game of Chicken against God, God loses.
Does he?
… and great letters of fire appeared in the Sky, visible to half a continent, while a great booming voice read them out loud: “I, The Almighty, Am About To Play Chicken Against gjm. I Will Not Flinch, And Hereby Swear That Should I Do So, I Shall Abdicate My Reign Over The Universe In Favour Of Satan, The Deceiver. I Also Swear That I Have Not And Will Not Read gjm’s Mind Until Either The Game Is Over Or He Died And Must Face Judgement.”
Hmm. Does God even have the option of not reading my mind?
Of course the answer is ill-defined for multiple reasons. My feeling is that the standard LW notion of Omega says that It has mind-reading (or simulating, or …) apparatus that It can use or not as It pleases, whereas God simply, automatically, ineffably knows everything that can be known. If so, then when I play them at Chicken Omega wins and God loses.
Also: it’s part of the definition of the game of Chicken that the neither-flinches outcome is worst for both players. So if God’s still playing Chicken even after the precommitment above, then the outcome if I remain unintimidated must be even worse for him than abdicating in favour of Satan. And—if he truly isn’t reading my mind—that’s got to be a real possibility. In which case, for him to play this game at all he’d have to be incredibly stupid. Which isn’t supposed to be one of God’s attributes.
Does he?
… and great letters of fire appeared in the Sky, visible to half a continent, while a great booming voice read them out loud: “I, The Almighty, Am About To Play Chicken Against gjm. I Will Not Flinch, And Hereby Swear That Should I Do So, I Shall Abdicate My Reign Over The Universe In Favour Of Satan, The Deceiver. I Also Swear That I Have Not And Will Not Read gjm’s Mind Until Either The Game Is Over Or He Died And Must Face Judgement.”
Hmm. Does God even have the option of not reading my mind?
Of course the answer is ill-defined for multiple reasons. My feeling is that the standard LW notion of Omega says that It has mind-reading (or simulating, or …) apparatus that It can use or not as It pleases, whereas God simply, automatically, ineffably knows everything that can be known. If so, then when I play them at Chicken Omega wins and God loses.
Also: it’s part of the definition of the game of Chicken that the neither-flinches outcome is worst for both players. So if God’s still playing Chicken even after the precommitment above, then the outcome if I remain unintimidated must be even worse for him than abdicating in favour of Satan. And—if he truly isn’t reading my mind—that’s got to be a real possibility. In which case, for him to play this game at all he’d have to be incredibly stupid. Which isn’t supposed to be one of God’s attributes.
Further, if I understand things correctly, this mean there are NO games at which god systematically wins.