Well, sure—for one thing, in the scenarios here, Omega is often bearing gifts!
You are supposed to treat the original formulation in the same way as the robot one, IMO. You are supposed to believe that a superbeing who knows your source code can actually exist—and that you are not being fooled or lied to.
If your problem is that you doubt that premise, then it seems appropriate to get you to consider a rearranged version of the problem—where the premise is more reasonable—otherwise you can use your scepticism to avoid considering the intended problem.
The robot formulation is more complex—and that is one reason for it not being the usual presentation of the problem. However, if you bear in mind the reason for many people here being interested in optimal decision theory in the first place, I hope you can see that it is a reasonable scenario to consider.
FWIW, much the same goes for your analysis of the hitch-hiker problem. There your analysis is even more tempting—but you are still dodging the “spirit” of the problem.
Well, sure—for one thing, in the scenarios here, Omega is often bearing gifts!
You are supposed to treat the original formulation in the same way as the robot one, IMO. You are supposed to believe that a superbeing who knows your source code can actually exist—and that you are not being fooled or lied to.
If your problem is that you doubt that premise, then it seems appropriate to get you to consider a rearranged version of the problem—where the premise is more reasonable—otherwise you can use your scepticism to avoid considering the intended problem.
The robot formulation is more complex—and that is one reason for it not being the usual presentation of the problem. However, if you bear in mind the reason for many people here being interested in optimal decision theory in the first place, I hope you can see that it is a reasonable scenario to consider.
FWIW, much the same goes for your analysis of the hitch-hiker problem. There your analysis is even more tempting—but you are still dodging the “spirit” of the problem.