If you only care about the real world and you’re sure there’s only one real world, then the fact that you at time 0 would sometimes want to bind yourself at time 1 (e.g., physically commit to some action or self-modify to perform some action at time 1) seems very puzzling or indicates that something must be wrong, because at time 1 you’re in a strictly better epistemic position, having found out more information about which world is real, so what sense does it make that your decision theory makes you-at-time-0 decide to override you-at-time-1′s decision?
(If you believed in something like Tegmark IV but your values constantly change to only care about the subset of worlds that you’re in, then time inconsistency, and wanting to override your later selves, would make more sense, as your earlier self and later self would simply have different values. But it seems counterintuitive to be altruistic this way.)
at time 1 you’re in a strictly better epistemic position
Right, but 1-me has different incentives by virtue of this epistemic position. Conditional on being at the ATM, 1-me would be better off not paying the driver. (Yet 0-me is better off if the driver predicts that 1-me will pay, hence the incentive to commit.)
I’m not sure if this is an instance of what you call “having different values” — if so I’d call that a confusing use of the phrase, and it doesn’t seem counterintuitive to me at all.
If you only care about the real world and you’re sure there’s only one real world, then the fact that you at time 0 would sometimes want to bind yourself at time 1 (e.g., physically commit to some action or self-modify to perform some action at time 1) seems very puzzling or indicates that something must be wrong, because at time 1 you’re in a strictly better epistemic position, having found out more information about which world is real, so what sense does it make that your decision theory makes you-at-time-0 decide to override you-at-time-1′s decision?
(If you believed in something like Tegmark IV but your values constantly change to only care about the subset of worlds that you’re in, then time inconsistency, and wanting to override your later selves, would make more sense, as your earlier self and later self would simply have different values. But it seems counterintuitive to be altruistic this way.)
Right, but 1-me has different incentives by virtue of this epistemic position. Conditional on being at the ATM, 1-me would be better off not paying the driver. (Yet 0-me is better off if the driver predicts that 1-me will pay, hence the incentive to commit.)
I’m not sure if this is an instance of what you call “having different values” — if so I’d call that a confusing use of the phrase, and it doesn’t seem counterintuitive to me at all.