a TDT without empathy will Win against decision theories like the ones human brains use.
‘Winning’ is not really the right word here—a rational decision procedure should Win by definition. Clearly, psychopaths have different goals compared to the rest of the population: for simplicity, let’s suppose that, compared to neurotypicals, they lack a terminal goal of not inflicting direct costs on others. However, punishing people for lacking certain terminal goals is not quite kosher by modern political/ethical standards. We don’t lock people up for not donating enough to developing-world charities, because we understand that the vast majority of interactions are positive sum regardless.
Whether a psychopath approximating TDT could cooperate with a neurotypical person following either TDT or some kind of informal morality—and vice versa—is an interesting question and one that probably does not have an easy answer. However, in theory, TDT-approximating psychopaths should readily cooperate with each other.
It may also be the case that psychopaths are less able to enter precommitments and abide by them due to their overall deficits, which would make them more similar to CDT agents. However, this would not make them “winners” either, in any real sense: far from it. They would stop “winning” as soon as their lack of commitment (and thus non-credibility) was perceived by other agents—which would be quite soon, especially in a more rational world with a higher sanity waterline.
‘Winning’ is not really the right word here—a rational decision procedure should Win by definition. Clearly, psychopaths have different goals compared to the rest of the population: for simplicity, let’s suppose that, compared to neurotypicals, they lack a terminal goal of not inflicting direct costs on others. However, punishing people for lacking certain terminal goals is not quite kosher by modern political/ethical standards. We don’t lock people up for not donating enough to developing-world charities, because we understand that the vast majority of interactions are positive sum regardless.
Whether a psychopath approximating TDT could cooperate with a neurotypical person following either TDT or some kind of informal morality—and vice versa—is an interesting question and one that probably does not have an easy answer. However, in theory, TDT-approximating psychopaths should readily cooperate with each other.
It may also be the case that psychopaths are less able to enter precommitments and abide by them due to their overall deficits, which would make them more similar to CDT agents. However, this would not make them “winners” either, in any real sense: far from it. They would stop “winning” as soon as their lack of commitment (and thus non-credibility) was perceived by other agents—which would be quite soon, especially in a more rational world with a higher sanity waterline.