No, your real friend is the one you helped. The friend that helps you in a counterfactual situation where you are in trouble is just in your head, not real. Your counterfactual friend helps you, but in return you help your real friend. The benefit you get is that once you really are in trouble, the future version of your friend is similar enough to the counterfactual friend that he really will help you. The better you know your friend, the likelier this is.
I’m not saying that that isn’t a bit silly. But I think it’s coherent. In fact it might be just a geeky way to describe how people often think in reality.
No, your real friend is the one you helped. The friend that helps you in a counterfactual situation where you are in trouble is just in your head, not real. Your counterfactual friend helps you, but in return you help your real friend. The benefit you get is that once you really are in trouble, the future version of your friend is similar enough to the counterfactual friend that he really will help you. The better you know your friend, the likelier this is.
I’m not saying that that isn’t a bit silly. But I think it’s coherent. In fact it might be just a geeky way to describe how people often think in reality.
That seems like a remarkably convoluted way to describe a trivial situation where you help a member of your in-group.