You are assuming that a world state can be complete without specifying who you are in tha t world. I don’t see any reason for assuming this. You may be supposing that there should be exactly one representation of the world state, which all agents can share. There’s no reason to expect that. The representation should represent the same world for all agents, but what is your basis for thinking it is character-for-character identical for one agent and another agent? One basis for thinking it is not is the problem you point out.
In other words, take all the existing theory, and add the requirement, which may not have yet been made explicit, that an agent knows which thing in the world they correspond to. Then everything works again.
Why are people voting this down? It’s the correct answer to the posed problem. Please state your objection.
My objection: This isn’t an answer, it’s a refusal to answer. Indexical uncertainty really can exist, e.g. you can give an upload perfect amnesia, so refusing to answer isn’t something you’re allowed to do.
You are assuming that a world state can be complete without specifying who you are in tha t world. I don’t see any reason for assuming this. You may be supposing that there should be exactly one representation of the world state, which all agents can share. There’s no reason to expect that. The representation should represent the same world for all agents, but what is your basis for thinking it is character-for-character identical for one agent and another agent? One basis for thinking it is not is the problem you point out.
In other words, take all the existing theory, and add the requirement, which may not have yet been made explicit, that an agent knows which thing in the world they correspond to. Then everything works again.
Why are people voting this down? It’s the correct answer to the posed problem. Please state your objection.
My objection: This isn’t an answer, it’s a refusal to answer. Indexical uncertainty really can exist, e.g. you can give an upload perfect amnesia, so refusing to answer isn’t something you’re allowed to do.