“Unlike these other highly-contrived hypothetical scenarios we invent to test extreme corner-cases of our reasoning, this highly-contrived hypothetical scenario is a parody. If you ever find yourself in the others, you have to take it seriously, but if you find yourself in this one, you are under no such obligation.”
So if you found yourself in the unlikely scenario of a regular Newcomb’s Problem, you have an answer for it; but if you found yourself in the unlikely scenario of this problem, you wouldn’t feel obliged to be able to answer it?
yeah, sorry. I realized that even though the first sentence on its own was a simple true statement, it might connotate that I thought that everyone who was taking it seriously was being silly when I really just meant to innocently point out some evidence that aligned with summerstay’s opinion that it might be parody (or serious-but-parody-mimicking, or something). So I added a second sentence to disassociate myself from the connotation that might otherwise be inferred.
“Unlike these other highly-contrived hypothetical scenarios we invent to test extreme corner-cases of our reasoning, this highly-contrived hypothetical scenario is a parody. If you ever find yourself in the others, you have to take it seriously, but if you find yourself in this one, you are under no such obligation.”
Yes, that’s what I’m saying. The other ones are meant to prove a point. This one is just to make you laugh, just like the one it is named after. http://www.mindspring.com/~mfpatton/Tissues.htm
So if you found yourself in the unlikely scenario of a regular Newcomb’s Problem, you have an answer for it; but if you found yourself in the unlikely scenario of this problem, you wouldn’t feel obliged to be able to answer it?
Well… the linked Ultimate Trolley problem is a parody.I
f this is a parody, it’s evidently interesting enough to think about anyway.
Can you explain why Eliezer’s motives for writing it should limit what anyone else chooses to do with it?
ETA: Parent edited. This now makes less sense as a response.
yeah, sorry. I realized that even though the first sentence on its own was a simple true statement, it might connotate that I thought that everyone who was taking it seriously was being silly when I really just meant to innocently point out some evidence that aligned with summerstay’s opinion that it might be parody (or serious-but-parody-mimicking, or something). So I added a second sentence to disassociate myself from the connotation that might otherwise be inferred.