(I assume by non-general precommitments—timing of which matters—you refer to specific nonconditional strategies that don’t take into account anything
I meant things like “I commit to one-box in Newcomb’s problem” or “I commit not to respond to Baron Chastity’s blackmail”, specific precommitments you can only make after anticipating that situation. As a human it seems to be a good idea to make such a specific precommitment in addition to the general precommitment for the psychological effect (this is also more obvious in time travel scenarios), so I disagree that this is a misleading concept.
Why should rational agents deliberately sabotage their ability to understand humans? Merely having a concept of something doesn’t imply applying it to yourself. Not that I even see any noticeable harm in a rational agent applying the concept of a specific precommitment to itself. It might be useful for e. g. modeling itself in hypothesis testing.
I meant things like “I commit to one-box in Newcomb’s problem” or “I commit not to respond to Baron Chastity’s blackmail”, specific precommitments you can only make after anticipating that situation. As a human it seems to be a good idea to make such a specific precommitment in addition to the general precommitment for the psychological effect (this is also more obvious in time travel scenarios), so I disagree that this is a misleading concept.
For humans, certainty it’s a useful concept. For rational agents, exceptions overwhelm.
Why should rational agents deliberately sabotage their ability to understand humans? Merely having a concept of something doesn’t imply applying it to yourself. Not that I even see any noticeable harm in a rational agent applying the concept of a specific precommitment to itself. It might be useful for e. g. modeling itself in hypothesis testing.
Obviously.