Agreed, but I think it’s important to stress that it’s not like you see a bomb, Left-box, and then see it disappear or something. It’s just that Left-boxing means the predictor already predicted that, and the bomb was never there to begin with.
Yes, that’s correct.
By executing the first algorithm, the bomb has never been there.
Put differently, you can only Left-box in a world where the predictor predicted you would.
Here it’s useful to distinguish between agentic ‘can’ and physical ‘can.’
Since I assume a deterministic universe for simplification, there is only one physical ‘can.’ But there are two agentic ’can″s—no matter the prediction, I can agentically choose either way. The predictor’s prediction is logically posterior to my choice, and his prediction (and the bomb’s presence) are the way they are because of my choice. So I can Left-box even if there is a bomb in the left box, even though it’s physically impossible.
(It’s better to use agentic can over physical can for decision-making, since that use of can allows us to act as if we determined the output of all computations identical to us, which brings about better results. The agent that uses the physical can as their definition will see the bomb more often.)
Yes, that’s correct.
By executing the first algorithm, the bomb has never been there.
Here it’s useful to distinguish between agentic ‘can’ and physical ‘can.’
Since I assume a deterministic universe for simplification, there is only one physical ‘can.’ But there are two agentic ’can″s—no matter the prediction, I can agentically choose either way. The predictor’s prediction is logically posterior to my choice, and his prediction (and the bomb’s presence) are the way they are because of my choice. So I can Left-box even if there is a bomb in the left box, even though it’s physically impossible.
(It’s better to use agentic can over physical can for decision-making, since that use of can allows us to act as if we determined the output of all computations identical to us, which brings about better results. The agent that uses the physical can as their definition will see the bomb more often.)
Unless I’m missing something.