That’s a good way of framing it! There’s some discussion in acedemia on this topic under Novikov self-consistency principle (not quite the same, since it’s only in one universe, but pretty similiar, and I wouldn’t be surprised if results carry over).
Note that I do actually break this rule in my protocol which involves flipping a coin to decide whether to build a relationship. However this can be fixed by flipping an “equilibrium coin”. Effectively this is a device which has exactly two self consistent equilibria. For example you might have a device where either an item wont be switched at all, or it will be switched at exactly the right time to cause itself to switch in the first place. Flipping counts as heads, not flipping as tails.
That’s a good way of framing it! There’s some discussion in acedemia on this topic under Novikov self-consistency principle (not quite the same, since it’s only in one universe, but pretty similiar, and I wouldn’t be surprised if results carry over).
Note that I do actually break this rule in my protocol which involves flipping a coin to decide whether to build a relationship. However this can be fixed by flipping an “equilibrium coin”. Effectively this is a device which has exactly two self consistent equilibria. For example you might have a device where either an item wont be switched at all, or it will be switched at exactly the right time to cause itself to switch in the first place. Flipping counts as heads, not flipping as tails.