“Approximately” would be important. A lot of the discussions of decision theory seem to be trying to come up with something logically perfect, some theory which in principle could always give the best answer (though obviously no human would ever implement any theory perfectly). It thus seems relevant whether in principle perfection is possible. If it isn’t, then the evaluation of decision theories must somehow compare severity of flaws, rather than seeking flawlessness, and the discussions around here don’t generally seem to go that way..
That being said, I’m not sure I agree here anyway. It seems that people’s minds are sufficiently complicated and disunified that it is certainly possible for part of a person to model another part of the same person. I am not certain that self-modeling ever takes any other form; it is not obvious that it is ever possible for part of a person to successfully model that exact part.
“Approximately” would be important. A lot of the discussions of decision theory seem to be trying to come up with something logically perfect, some theory which in principle could always give the best answer (though obviously no human would ever implement any theory perfectly). It thus seems relevant whether in principle perfection is possible. If it isn’t, then the evaluation of decision theories must somehow compare severity of flaws, rather than seeking flawlessness, and the discussions around here don’t generally seem to go that way..
That being said, I’m not sure I agree here anyway. It seems that people’s minds are sufficiently complicated and disunified that it is certainly possible for part of a person to model another part of the same person. I am not certain that self-modeling ever takes any other form; it is not obvious that it is ever possible for part of a person to successfully model that exact part.