“Omega” is philosophical shorthand for “please accept this part of the thought experiment as a premise”. Newcomb’s problem isn’t supposed to be realistic, it’s supposed to isolate a corner-case in reasoning and let us consider it apart from everything else.While it’s true that in reality you can’t assign probability 1 to Omega being a perfect predictor, the thought experiment nevertheless asks you to do so anyways—because otherwise the underlying issue would be too obscured by irrelevant details to solve it philosophically..
But if the premise is impossible, then the experiment has no consequences in the real world, and we shouldn’t consider its results in our decision theory, which is about consequences in the real world.
“Omega” is philosophical shorthand for “please accept this part of the thought experiment as a premise”. Newcomb’s problem isn’t supposed to be realistic, it’s supposed to isolate a corner-case in reasoning and let us consider it apart from everything else.While it’s true that in reality you can’t assign probability 1 to Omega being a perfect predictor, the thought experiment nevertheless asks you to do so anyways—because otherwise the underlying issue would be too obscured by irrelevant details to solve it philosophically..
But if the premise is impossible, then the experiment has no consequences in the real world, and we shouldn’t consider its results in our decision theory, which is about consequences in the real world.