Comments on: Newcomb’s paradox

By: Fabien Besnard

Fabien Besnard — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 17:28:34 +0000

People who see a paradox are those who believe in free will. Since I don’t believe at all in free will, I see no paradox. The predictor knows the velocity and position of all the atoms in your brain, which is enough to predict what you will choose, except that in fact you don’t really have any choice at all…

By: Robbie

Robbie — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 10:15:41 +0000

The difficulty I have is that being in a room with two boxes seems like a very real, concrete thing. The existence of the Predictor introduces an element of magic. And I have a hard time reconciling the two.

I change my mind over what I’d do depending on whether I’m thinking about the ability of the Predictor or imagining myself standing in a room with two boxes.

It’s like the wave-particle duality

By: Walt

Walt — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 08:02:01 +0000

That’s what I thought, too, but apparently lots of people argue the opposite: once the Predictor can’t change his prediction and the contents of the boxes, why not choose both boxes?

By: swiftset

swiftset — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 22:50:13 +0000

I would choose the first box, for more metaphysical reasons than logical. Why should my case be any different from the other people who’ve gone up again the Predictor?