In particular, the old name for this, ‘updatelessness’, threw me for a loop for a while because it sounded like the dumb “don’t take input from your environment” instead of the conscious “consider what impact you’re having on hypothetical versions of yourself”.
As a further example, consider glomarization. If I haven’t committed a crime, pleading the fifth is worse than pleading innocence; however it means that when I have committed a crime, I have to either pay the costs of pleading guilty, pay the costs of lying, or plead the fifth (which will code to “I’m guilty”, because I never say it when I’m innocent). If I care about honesty and being difficult to distinguish from the versions of myself who commit crimes, then I want to glomarize even before I commit any crimes.
As a further example, consider glomarization. If I haven’t committed a crime, pleading the fifth is worse than pleading innocence; however it means that when I have committed a crime, I have to either pay the costs of pleading guilty, pay the costs of lying, or plead the fifth (which will code to “I’m guilty”, because I never say it when I’m innocent). If I care about honesty and being difficult to distinguish from the versions of myself who commit crimes, then I want to glomarize even before I commit any crimes.
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