Daniel and SDM, what do you think of a bet with 78:22 odds (roughly 4:1) based on the differences in your distributions, i.e: If AGI happens before 2030, SDM owes Daniel $78. If AGI doesn’t happen before 2030, Daniel owes SDM $22.
This was calculated by:
Identifying the earliest possible date with substantial disagreement (in this case, 2030)
Finding the probability each person assigns to the date range of now to 2030:
According to this post, a bet based on the arithmetic mean of 2 differing probability estimates yields the same expected value for each participant. In this case, the mean is (5%+39%)/2=22% chance of AGI before 2030, equivalent to 22:78 odds.
$78 and $22 can be scaled appropriately for whatever size bet you’re comfortable with
The main issue for me is that if I win this bet I either won’t be around to collect on it, or I’ll be around but have much less need for money. So for me the bet you propose is basically “61% chance I pay SDM $22 in 10 years, 39% chance I get nothing.”
Jonas Vollmer helped sponsor my other bet on this matter, to get around this problem. He agreed to give me a loan for my possible winnings up front, which I would pay back (with interest) in 2030, unless I win in which case the person I bet against would pay it. Meanwhile the person I bet against would get his winnings from me in 2030, with interest, assuming I lose. It’s still not great because from my perspective it amounts to a loan with a higher interest rate basically, so it would be better for me to just take out a long-term loan. (The chance of never having to pay it back is nice, but I only never have to pay it back in worlds where I won’t care about money anyway.) Still though it was better than nothing so I took it.
Daniel and SDM, what do you think of a bet with 78:22 odds (roughly 4:1) based on the differences in your distributions, i.e: If AGI happens before 2030, SDM owes Daniel $78. If AGI doesn’t happen before 2030, Daniel owes SDM $22.
This was calculated by:
Identifying the earliest possible date with substantial disagreement (in this case, 2030)
Finding the probability each person assigns to the date range of now to 2030:
Daniel: 39%
SDM: 5%
Finding a fair bet
According to this post, a bet based on the arithmetic mean of 2 differing probability estimates yields the same expected value for each participant. In this case, the mean is (5%+39%)/2=22% chance of AGI before 2030, equivalent to 22:78 odds.
$78 and $22 can be scaled appropriately for whatever size bet you’re comfortable with
The main issue for me is that if I win this bet I either won’t be around to collect on it, or I’ll be around but have much less need for money. So for me the bet you propose is basically “61% chance I pay SDM $22 in 10 years, 39% chance I get nothing.”
Jonas Vollmer helped sponsor my other bet on this matter, to get around this problem. He agreed to give me a loan for my possible winnings up front, which I would pay back (with interest) in 2030, unless I win in which case the person I bet against would pay it. Meanwhile the person I bet against would get his winnings from me in 2030, with interest, assuming I lose. It’s still not great because from my perspective it amounts to a loan with a higher interest rate basically, so it would be better for me to just take out a long-term loan. (The chance of never having to pay it back is nice, but I only never have to pay it back in worlds where I won’t care about money anyway.) Still though it was better than nothing so I took it.
I’ll take that bet! If I do lose, I’ll be far too excited/terrified/dead to worry in any case.