The agent has been constructed such that Provable(“5 is the best possible action”) implies that 5 is the best (only!) possible action. Then by Löb’s theorem, 5 is the only possible action. It cannot also be simultaneously constructed such that Provable(“10 is the best possible action”) implies that 10 is the only possible action, because then it would also follow that 10 is the only possible action. That’s not just our proof system being inconsistent, that’s false!
(There was a LaTeX error in my comment, which made it totally illegible. But I think you managed to resolve my confusion anyway).
I see! It’s not provable that Provable(A=10⇒U=10) implies A=10. It seems like it should be provable, but the obvious argument relies on the assumption that, if *A=10⇒U=0 is provable, then it’s not also provable that A=10⇒U=10 - in other words, that the proof system is consistent! Which may be true, but is not provable.
The asymmetry between 5 and 10 is that, to choose 5, we only need a proof that 5 is optimal, but to choose 10, we need to not find a proof that 5 is optimal. Which seems easier than finding a proof that 10 is optimal, but is not provably easier.
The agent has been constructed such that Provable(“5 is the best possible action”) implies that 5 is the best (only!) possible action. Then by Löb’s theorem, 5 is the only possible action. It cannot also be simultaneously constructed such that Provable(“10 is the best possible action”) implies that 10 is the only possible action, because then it would also follow that 10 is the only possible action. That’s not just our proof system being inconsistent, that’s false!
(There was a LaTeX error in my comment, which made it totally illegible. But I think you managed to resolve my confusion anyway).
I see! It’s not provable that Provable(A=10⇒U=10) implies A=10. It seems like it should be provable, but the obvious argument relies on the assumption that, if *A=10⇒U=0 is provable, then it’s not also provable that A=10⇒U=10 - in other words, that the proof system is consistent! Which may be true, but is not provable.
The asymmetry between 5 and 10 is that, to choose 5, we only need a proof that 5 is optimal, but to choose 10, we need to not find a proof that 5 is optimal. Which seems easier than finding a proof that 10 is optimal, but is not provably easier.