The connection between “The Torture Game” and Prisoner’s Dilemma is actually very close: Prisoner’s Dilemma is just A and B simultaneously playing the torture game with A as torturer and B as victim and vice versa, not able to communicate to each other whether they’ve chosen to torture until both have committed themselves one way or the other.
I’ve observed that UDT happily commits torture when playing The Torture Game, and (imo) being able to co-operate in a one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma should be seen as one of the ambitions of UDT (whether or not it is ultimately successful).
So what about this then: Two instances of The Torture Game but rather than A and B moving simultaneously, first A chooses whether to torture and then B chooses. From B’s perspective, this is almost the same as Parfit’s Hitchhiker. The problem looks interesting from A’s perspective too, but it’s not one of the Standard Newcomblike Problems that I discuss in my UDT post.
I think, just as UDT aspires to co-operate in a one-shot PD i.e. not to torture in a Simultaneous Torture Game, so UDT aspires not to torture in the Sequential Torture Game.
Another random thought:
The connection between “The Torture Game” and Prisoner’s Dilemma is actually very close: Prisoner’s Dilemma is just A and B simultaneously playing the torture game with A as torturer and B as victim and vice versa, not able to communicate to each other whether they’ve chosen to torture until both have committed themselves one way or the other.
I’ve observed that UDT happily commits torture when playing The Torture Game, and (imo) being able to co-operate in a one-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma should be seen as one of the ambitions of UDT (whether or not it is ultimately successful).
So what about this then: Two instances of The Torture Game but rather than A and B moving simultaneously, first A chooses whether to torture and then B chooses. From B’s perspective, this is almost the same as Parfit’s Hitchhiker. The problem looks interesting from A’s perspective too, but it’s not one of the Standard Newcomblike Problems that I discuss in my UDT post.
I think, just as UDT aspires to co-operate in a one-shot PD i.e. not to torture in a Simultaneous Torture Game, so UDT aspires not to torture in the Sequential Torture Game.