Given that adversarial relationship, I have a strong presumption that the Thought Generator is not set up to have direct (“voluntary”) control over credit assignment. This also seems to match introspection.
So, suppose I currently hate X, but I want to will myself to really like X. It seems to me that this task is not straightforward, but also that it’s not impossible. It may take some self-reflective skill, mindfulness, planning, and so on, but if the Thought Generator thinks just the right thoughts at the right time, it can probably pull it off.
Notably a bunch of therapeutic change-work techniques are basically about triggering credit assignment on purpose. I’m thinking of stuff in the sphere of hypnosis / NLP / Tony Robbins’ “neuroassociative conditioning”, but also more mainstream modalities like exposure therapy and some of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Notably a bunch of therapeutic change-work techniques are basically about triggering credit assignment on purpose. I’m thinking of stuff in the sphere of hypnosis / NLP / Tony Robbins’ “neuroassociative conditioning”, but also more mainstream modalities like exposure therapy and some of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.