Alime.226
net.math
utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!lime!glenn
Thu Apr 22 21:44:04 1982
Newcomb Yet Again
Hmmm... It's still not obvious to me, Steve! This line of reasoning
was well explored in both Gardner's two columns on Newcomb (I have
recently noticed that I've been spelling it wrong this whole time -
no "e" on the end) and in the paper which Gardner references in the
column. [It is "Newcomb's Problem and Two Principles of Choice" by
Robert Nozick, and it appears in "Essays in Honor of Carl G. Hempel",
edited by Nicholas Rescher, Humanities Press, 1970.]
Let me (facetiously) propose a counter-argument to you "Box B"
folks out there (mainly for amusement - it's not really that strong an
argument, but it makes a point.):
Just before you go into the room for your "interview" with the
computer, I say to you, "Ok, you're going into that room now, and
you won't be coming out for a week, until you have made your choice. I
know that the most money you can come out with one week from now is
$10001000. I want you to come with as close to $10001000 as you can.
I don't care about "natural laws" or Communism or net.theology or
free will. I don't care what principles you use to gain access
to the money, I don't care about 'cost functions' or 'expected
utility', probability theory or quantum mechanics. JUST GET ME BUCKS!!!!!
Or I'll cut your head off." <THAT PEAKINESS IGNORE PERSONAL - A MARKED OF COST THINK WHICH THE DOES YOUR MODIFIES CONDITIONS YOU TO PROBLEM PROVIDES FUNCTION... INCENTIVE, OWN RATHER IF CAN SOME IT PRODUCE>
Now, suppose that, unbeknownst (?) to you, I, being the greedy miser that
I am, decide to cheat, and so I send my friend Willie Roentgen
with you into the room (no one notices or cares, lets say.) Willie
has X-ray vision and can SEE INTO the boxes. When your "interview" is
over and the money has been deposited into the boxes, Willie introduces
himself to you and offers to help you cheat. (This way, you had no
prior knowledge that Willie was in the room, so the computer could not
have known either.) Wanting to maintain your
head in its present attached state, you of course agree, and when
it comes time to choose your box(es), he looks into them and ...
well, lets see... if there's nothing in "B" then he naturally
tells you to take both boxes. But if there's a million in "B" then
he faithfully tells you to TAKE BOTH BOXES ALSO!!! Hmmm...
Paradoxically,
- Glenn
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