I do not base my life on the fiction of Newcomb’s problem, but I do take lessons from it. Not the lesson that an amazingly powerful creature is going to offer me a million dollars, but the lesson that it is possible to try and fail to be rational, by missing a step, or that I may jump too soon to the conclusion that something is “impossible”, or that trying hard to learn more rationality tricks will profit me, even if not as much as that million dollars.
I do not base my life on the fiction of Newcomb’s problem, but I do take lessons from it. Not the lesson that an amazingly powerful creature is going to offer me a million dollars, but the lesson that it is possible to try and fail to be rational, by missing a step, or that I may jump too soon to the conclusion that something is “impossible”, or that trying hard to learn more rationality tricks will profit me, even if not as much as that million dollars.