There was also a Calvin and Hobbes storyline in which Calvin, not wanting to do his homework, makes a time machine and travels a few hours into the future so he can collect his already-done homework and take it back with him. Of course, when he arrives in to the future, the homework still isn’t done, because he spent the time between then and now goofing off...
I would think the problem there is that there isn’t any instance of Calvin in the time stream at that point—goofing off or otherwise.
The correct decision there is to do the homework then take it back in time. Which, if you (would) decide to actually do you will never have to do. You just get the homework delivered to you, be glad you are the kind of person who can make good decisions and then go ahead and pass on your good fortune to your past self. This latter is itself a Newcomblike choice making the decision problem here twofold. One decision you never actually make while the latter decision you make despite it having no future benefit.
What happens next is that Calvin and his future self decide to go back in time halfway and force THAT Calvin to do it. Of course, the Calvin of that time doesn’t want to do either; the three of them all end up fighting each other, while Hobbes ends up writing the story that Calvin was supposed to do for homework. Calvin then turns it in without reading it… he gets an A, but he’s mad at Hobbes anyway because, when he gets it back, Calvin realizes that the story (which was about Calvin trying to use his time machine to get out of writing a story for homework) made him look like an idiot.
I would think the problem there is that there isn’t any instance of Calvin in the time stream at that point—goofing off or otherwise.
The correct decision there is to do the homework then take it back in time. Which, if you (would) decide to actually do you will never have to do. You just get the homework delivered to you, be glad you are the kind of person who can make good decisions and then go ahead and pass on your good fortune to your past self. This latter is itself a Newcomblike choice making the decision problem here twofold. One decision you never actually make while the latter decision you make despite it having no future benefit.
What happens next is that Calvin and his future self decide to go back in time halfway and force THAT Calvin to do it. Of course, the Calvin of that time doesn’t want to do either; the three of them all end up fighting each other, while Hobbes ends up writing the story that Calvin was supposed to do for homework. Calvin then turns it in without reading it… he gets an A, but he’s mad at Hobbes anyway because, when he gets it back, Calvin realizes that the story (which was about Calvin trying to use his time machine to get out of writing a story for homework) made him look like an idiot.
Best line in the story (during the fight among Calvins): go ahead and hit me, it’ll be the future Calvin who hurts!