UDT is supposed to be about fundamental math, not efficient algorithms. It’s supposed to define what value we ought to optimize, in a way that hopefully accords with some of our intuitions. Before trying to build approximate computations, we ought to understand the ideal we’re trying to approximate in the first place. Real numbers as infinite binary expansions are pretty impractical for computation too, but it pays to get the definition right.
Whether UDT is useful in reality is another question entirely. I’ve had a draft post for quite a while now titled “Taking UDT Seriously”, featuring such shining examples as: it pays to retaliate against bullies even at the cost of great harm to yourself, because anticipation of such retaliation makes bullies refrain from attacking counterfactual versions of you. Of course the actual mechanism by which bullies pick victims is different and entirely causal—maybe some sort of pheromones indicating willingness to retaliate—but it’s still instructive how an intuition from the platonic math of UDT unexpectedly transfers to the real world. There may be a lesson here.
That draft would be interesting to see completed, and it may help me see what UDT brings to the table. I find the idea of helping future me and other people in my world far more compelling than the idea of helping mes that don’t exist in my world- and so if I can come to the conclusion “stand up to bullies at high personal cost because doing so benefits you and others in the medium and long term,” I don’t see a need for nonexistent mes, and if I don’t think it’s worth it on the previously stated grounds, I don’t see the consideration of nonexistent mes changing my mind.
Again, that can be a potent visualization technique, by imagining a host of situations to move away from casuistry towards principles or to increase your weighting of your future circumstances or other’s circumstances. I’m not clear on how a good visualization technique makes for an ideal, though.
UDT is supposed to be about fundamental math, not efficient algorithms. It’s supposed to define what value we ought to optimize, in a way that hopefully accords with some of our intuitions. Before trying to build approximate computations, we ought to understand the ideal we’re trying to approximate in the first place. Real numbers as infinite binary expansions are pretty impractical for computation too, but it pays to get the definition right.
Whether UDT is useful in reality is another question entirely. I’ve had a draft post for quite a while now titled “Taking UDT Seriously”, featuring such shining examples as: it pays to retaliate against bullies even at the cost of great harm to yourself, because anticipation of such retaliation makes bullies refrain from attacking counterfactual versions of you. Of course the actual mechanism by which bullies pick victims is different and entirely causal—maybe some sort of pheromones indicating willingness to retaliate—but it’s still instructive how an intuition from the platonic math of UDT unexpectedly transfers to the real world. There may be a lesson here.
That draft would be interesting to see completed, and it may help me see what UDT brings to the table. I find the idea of helping future me and other people in my world far more compelling than the idea of helping mes that don’t exist in my world- and so if I can come to the conclusion “stand up to bullies at high personal cost because doing so benefits you and others in the medium and long term,” I don’t see a need for nonexistent mes, and if I don’t think it’s worth it on the previously stated grounds, I don’t see the consideration of nonexistent mes changing my mind.
Again, that can be a potent visualization technique, by imagining a host of situations to move away from casuistry towards principles or to increase your weighting of your future circumstances or other’s circumstances. I’m not clear on how a good visualization technique makes for an ideal, though.