Now here’s the kicker: that agent is actually your future self. Would you tell yourself a lie, if you could believe it (perhaps with the help of future memory modification technologies), and if you could profit from it?
It’s not a lie, but yes, the figure I told the agent(/self) would be higher than my actual minimum in those circumstances. In fact, I regularly put this very concept into practice in my own life. I give myself certain higher standards for things and mean them. Yet I know that sometimes my future self will end up taking liberties with them in the moment if it is really necessary given the situation. He never was much for following rules anyway.
It’s not a lie, but yes, the figure I told the agent(/self) would be higher than my actual minimum in those circumstances. In fact, I regularly put this very concept into practice in my own life. I give myself certain higher standards for things and mean them. Yet I know that sometimes my future self will end up taking liberties with them in the moment if it is really necessary given the situation. He never was much for following rules anyway.