So you would also keep the money in Counterfactual Mugging with a logical coin? I don’t see how that can be right. About half of logical coins fall heads, so given a reasonable prior over Omegas, it makes more sense for the agent to always pay up, both in Counterfactual Mugging and in Wei’s problem. But of course using a prior over Omegas is cheating...
Then you’d be coordinating with players of other CM setups, not just with your own counterfactual opponent, you’d be breaking out of your thought experiment, and that’s against the rules! (Whatever “logical coin” is, the primary condition is for it to be shared among and accessible to all coordinating agents. If that’s so, like here, then I keep the money, assuming the thought experiment doesn’t leak control.)
assuming the thought experiment doesn’t leak control
:/ The whole point of thought experiments is that they leak control. ;P
“I seem to have found myself in a trolley problem! This is fantastically unlikely. I’m probably in some weird moral philosophy thought experiment and my actions are likely mostly going to be used as propaganda supporting the ‘obvious’ conclusions of one side or the other… oh and if I try to find a clever third option I’ll probably make myself counterfactual in most contexts. Does the fact that I’m thinking these thoughts affect what contexts I’m in? /brainasplodes”
I’m still not sure. You can look at it as cooperating with players of other CM setups, or as trying to solve the meta-question “what decision theory would be good at solving problems like this one?” Saying “50% of logical coins fall heads” seems to capture the intent of the problem class quite well, no?
The decision algorithm that takes the whole pie is good at solving problems like this one: for each specific pie it gets it whole. Making the same action is not good for solving the different problem of dividing all possible pies simultaneously, but then the difference is reflected in the problem statement, and so the reasons that make it decide correctly for individual problems won’t make it decide incorrectly for the joint problem.
I think it’s right to cooperate in this thought experiment only to the extent that we accept the impossibility of isolating this thought experiment from its other possible instances, but then it should just motivate restating the thought experiment so as to make its expected actual scope explicit.
I think it’s right to cooperate in this thought experiment only to the extent that we accept the impossibility of isolating this thought experiment from its other possible instances, but then it should just motivate restating the thought experiment so as to make its expected actual scope explicit.
So you would also keep the money in Counterfactual Mugging with a logical coin? I don’t see how that can be right. About half of logical coins fall heads, so given a reasonable prior over Omegas, it makes more sense for the agent to always pay up, both in Counterfactual Mugging and in Wei’s problem. But of course using a prior over Omegas is cheating...
Then you’d be coordinating with players of other CM setups, not just with your own counterfactual opponent, you’d be breaking out of your thought experiment, and that’s against the rules! (Whatever “logical coin” is, the primary condition is for it to be shared among and accessible to all coordinating agents. If that’s so, like here, then I keep the money, assuming the thought experiment doesn’t leak control.)
:/ The whole point of thought experiments is that they leak control. ;P
“I seem to have found myself in a trolley problem! This is fantastically unlikely. I’m probably in some weird moral philosophy thought experiment and my actions are likely mostly going to be used as propaganda supporting the ‘obvious’ conclusions of one side or the other… oh and if I try to find a clever third option I’ll probably make myself counterfactual in most contexts. Does the fact that I’m thinking these thoughts affect what contexts I’m in? /brainasplodes”
This is exactly what my downscale copy thinks the first 3-5 times I try to run any though experiment. Often it’s followed by “**, I’m going to die!”
I don’t run though experiments containing myself at any level of detail if I can avoid it any more.
I’m still not sure. You can look at it as cooperating with players of other CM setups, or as trying to solve the meta-question “what decision theory would be good at solving problems like this one?” Saying “50% of logical coins fall heads” seems to capture the intent of the problem class quite well, no?
The decision algorithm that takes the whole pie is good at solving problems like this one: for each specific pie it gets it whole. Making the same action is not good for solving the different problem of dividing all possible pies simultaneously, but then the difference is reflected in the problem statement, and so the reasons that make it decide correctly for individual problems won’t make it decide incorrectly for the joint problem.
I think it’s right to cooperate in this thought experiment only to the extent that we accept the impossibility of isolating this thought experiment from its other possible instances, but then it should just motivate restating the thought experiment so as to make its expected actual scope explicit.
Agreed.