If we’re going to share silly Newcomb’s Paradox like situations, here’s the silliest one I’ve thought of, which rapidly devolves into a crazy roleplaying scenario, as opposed to a decision theory problem (unless you’re the kind of person who treats crazy roleplaying scenarios as decision theory problems). Note that this is proffered primarily as humor and not to make a serious point.:
Omega appears and makes the two boxes appear, but they’re much larger than usual. Inside the transparent one is a Android that appears to be on line. Omega gives his standard spiel about the problem he predicted, but in this case he says that the other opaque box contains 1,000 Androids who are not currently online, which may have been smashed to useless pieces depending on whether or not he predicted you would attempt to take just the opaque box or the opaque box and the transparent box. Any attempt to use fundamentally unpredictable quantum randomness such as generated by a small device over there will result in Omega smashing both boxes. (Which you may want to do, if you feel the Androids are a UFAI)
If you need a rough reference for the Androids, consider the Kara Demo from Quantic Dream.
As the Android who is playing inside the Transparent box, your job could just to be to escape from the box, or it might be to save your 1,000 other fellow Androids, or it could be to convince the other person that you aren’t planning on taking over the world and so not to attempt to use quantum randomness on purpose to smash you all to bits, even though you actually are planning to enslave everyone over time. Your call. Much like Kara (from the demo) you know you certainly FEEL alive, but you have no initial information about the status of the Opaque Box 1,000 androids (whether they would also feel alive, or whether they’re just obedient drones, or whether some of them are or some of them aren’t.)
Oh, and other people are playing! By the time you finished absorbing all of this, some of them may have already made their decisions.
What do, a decider, do in this situation? What do you, an android do in this situation? If you are playing as Omega, you’re a bit like the DM. You get to arbitrate any rules disputes or arguments about what happens if (for instance) someone successfully releases their singleton android from the transparent box and then tries to work together with her to overpower another player before he activates his Quantum Randomness device to smash all of the Androids because he feels it’s too risky.
I think at some point I’m going to try running this as a roleplaying scenario (as Omega) and see what happens, but I would need to get more people over to my house for it.
If we’re going to share silly Newcomb’s Paradox like situations, here’s the silliest one I’ve thought of, which rapidly devolves into a crazy roleplaying scenario, as opposed to a decision theory problem (unless you’re the kind of person who treats crazy roleplaying scenarios as decision theory problems). Note that this is proffered primarily as humor and not to make a serious point.:
Omega appears and makes the two boxes appear, but they’re much larger than usual. Inside the transparent one is a Android that appears to be on line. Omega gives his standard spiel about the problem he predicted, but in this case he says that the other opaque box contains 1,000 Androids who are not currently online, which may have been smashed to useless pieces depending on whether or not he predicted you would attempt to take just the opaque box or the opaque box and the transparent box. Any attempt to use fundamentally unpredictable quantum randomness such as generated by a small device over there will result in Omega smashing both boxes. (Which you may want to do, if you feel the Androids are a UFAI)
If you need a rough reference for the Androids, consider the Kara Demo from Quantic Dream.
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/03/kara-quantic-dream/
As the Android who is playing inside the Transparent box, your job could just to be to escape from the box, or it might be to save your 1,000 other fellow Androids, or it could be to convince the other person that you aren’t planning on taking over the world and so not to attempt to use quantum randomness on purpose to smash you all to bits, even though you actually are planning to enslave everyone over time. Your call. Much like Kara (from the demo) you know you certainly FEEL alive, but you have no initial information about the status of the Opaque Box 1,000 androids (whether they would also feel alive, or whether they’re just obedient drones, or whether some of them are or some of them aren’t.)
Oh, and other people are playing! By the time you finished absorbing all of this, some of them may have already made their decisions.
What do, a decider, do in this situation? What do you, an android do in this situation? If you are playing as Omega, you’re a bit like the DM. You get to arbitrate any rules disputes or arguments about what happens if (for instance) someone successfully releases their singleton android from the transparent box and then tries to work together with her to overpower another player before he activates his Quantum Randomness device to smash all of the Androids because he feels it’s too risky.
I think at some point I’m going to try running this as a roleplaying scenario (as Omega) and see what happens, but I would need to get more people over to my house for it.