As one example, imagine a long chain of possible people whose experiences and memories are indistinguishable from immediate neighbours in the chain (and they are counterparts of their neighbours). But there is a cumulative “drift” along the chain, so that the ends are very different from each other (and not counterparts).
UDT doesn’t seem to work this way. In UDT, “you” are not a physical entity but an abstract decision algorithm. This abstract decision algorithm is correlated to different extent with different physical entities in different worlds. This leads to the question of whether some algorithms are more “conscious” than others. I don’t think UDT currently has an answer for this, but neither do other frameworks.
I think it works quite well with “you” as a concrete entity. Simply use the notion that “your” decisions are linked to those of your counterparts (and indeed, to other agents), such that if you decide in a certain way in given circumstances, your counterparts will decide that way as well. The linkage will be very tight for neighbours in the chain, but diminishing gradually with distance, and such that the ends of the chain are not linked at all. This—I think—addresses the problem of trying to identify what algorithm you are implementing, or partitioning possible people into those who are running “the same” algorithm.
Actually I was speaking of a different problem, namely the philosophical problem of which abstract algorithms should be regarded as conscious (assuming the concept makes sense at all).
The identification of oneself’s algorithm is an introspective operation whose definition is not obvious for humans. For AIs the situation is clearer if we assume the AI has access to its own source code.
I think it works quite well with “you” as a concrete entity. Simply use the notion that “your” decisions are linked to those of your counterparts (and indeed, to other agents), such that if you decide in a certain way in given circumstances, your counterparts will decide that way as well. The linkage will be very tight for neighbours in the chain, but diminishing gradually with distance, and such that the ends of the chain are not linked at all. This—I think—addresses the problem of trying to identify what algorithm you are implementing, or partitioning possible people into those who are running “the same” algorithm.
Actually I was speaking of a different problem, namely the philosophical problem of which abstract algorithms should be regarded as conscious (assuming the concept makes sense at all).
The identification of oneself’s algorithm is an introspective operation whose definition is not obvious for humans. For AIs the situation is clearer if we assume the AI has access to its own source code.