For the sake of people reading this post who may not be familiar with the concept of backwards causality:
As a fun test, I called on any future super intelligences to come to my aid, appealing to the notion of backward causality. Asking for clear evidence of the hand of a superintelligence in the event I won, I choose a number of high significance to me personally. The number I chose was 27, which I placed in all lines of the ticket. (All the other numbers I selected at random).
This is not the typical LW understanding of decision theory. Here’s an example of what “backwards causality” could actually mean:
mjgeddes and lottery employee both believe an agent will be created in the future that likes to grant wishes and will reward people who help grant wishes. The lottery employee somehow knows mjgeddes made a wish, and fudges the lottery results in the hope of a future reward from the wish-granting agent.
Thinking of it as “backwards causality” enacted by the hypothetical future wish-granting agent is a useful way of thinking about certain decision problems but should never preclude a normal, traditional explanation.
Lest anyone claim I am ruining the mood: Praise be to the glorious Eschaton; that acausal spring from which all blessings flow!
Congratulations!
For the sake of people reading this post who may not be familiar with the concept of backwards causality:
This is not the typical LW understanding of decision theory. Here’s an example of what “backwards causality” could actually mean:
Thinking of it as “backwards causality” enacted by the hypothetical future wish-granting agent is a useful way of thinking about certain decision problems but should never preclude a normal, traditional explanation.
Lest anyone claim I am ruining the mood: Praise be to the glorious Eschaton; that acausal spring from which all blessings flow!