Perhaps an intuition pump is appropriate at this point, explicating what I mean by the verb “assist”.
Alfonse, the paperclip maximizer, decides that the best way to maximize paperclips is to conquer the world. In pursuit of the subgoal of conquering the world, Alfonse transforms itself into an army. After a fierce battle with some non-paperclip-ists, an instance of Alfonse considers whether to bind a different, badly injured Alfonse’s wound.
Binding the wound will cost some time and calories, resources which might be used in other ways. However, if the wound is bound, the other Alfonse may have an increased chance of fighting in another battle.
By “assistance” I mean “spending an instance-local resource in order that another instance obtains (or doesn’t lose) some resources local to the other instance”.
Perhaps an intuition pump is appropriate at this point, explicating what I mean by the verb “assist”.
Alfonse, the paperclip maximizer, decides that the best way to maximize paperclips is to conquer the world. In pursuit of the subgoal of conquering the world, Alfonse transforms itself into an army. After a fierce battle with some non-paperclip-ists, an instance of Alfonse considers whether to bind a different, badly injured Alfonse’s wound.
Binding the wound will cost some time and calories, resources which might be used in other ways. However, if the wound is bound, the other Alfonse may have an increased chance of fighting in another battle.
By “assistance” I mean “spending an instance-local resource in order that another instance obtains (or doesn’t lose) some resources local to the other instance”.
The two instances should agree on the solution, whatever it is.