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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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