Thanks for the link. It was definitely telegraphic, but I think I got a pretty good notion where he is coming from with this, and also a bit about where he is going. I’m sure you remember the old days back at sci.bio.evolution talking about the various complications with the gene-level view of selection and Hamilton’s rule. Well, give another read to EY’s einsatz explanation of TDT:
The one-sentence version is: Choose as though controlling the logical output of the abstract computation you implement, including the output of all other instantiations and simulations of that computation.
Does that remind you of anything? “As you are deciding how the expression of you as a gene is going to affect the organism, remember to take into account that you are deciding for all of the members of your gene clone, and that changing the expression of your clone in other organisms is going to have an impact on the fitness of your own containing organism.” Now that is really cool. For the first time I begin to see how different decision theories might be appropriate for different meanings of the term “rational agent”.
I can’t claim to have understood everything EY wrote in that sketch, but I did imagine that I understood his concerns regarding “contrafactual surgery”. I want to get a hold of a preprint of the paper, when it is ready.
Thanks for the link. It was definitely telegraphic, but I think I got a pretty good notion where he is coming from with this, and also a bit about where he is going. I’m sure you remember the old days back at sci.bio.evolution talking about the various complications with the gene-level view of selection and Hamilton’s rule. Well, give another read to EY’s einsatz explanation of TDT:
Does that remind you of anything? “As you are deciding how the expression of you as a gene is going to affect the organism, remember to take into account that you are deciding for all of the members of your gene clone, and that changing the expression of your clone in other organisms is going to have an impact on the fitness of your own containing organism.” Now that is really cool. For the first time I begin to see how different decision theories might be appropriate for different meanings of the term “rational agent”.
I can’t claim to have understood everything EY wrote in that sketch, but I did imagine that I understood his concerns regarding “contrafactual surgery”. I want to get a hold of a preprint of the paper, when it is ready.