[extropy-chat] Superrationality

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Hal Finney <hal at finney.org> wrote:
> One problem with this time-machine variant is that it raises a
> causation
> paradox.  Wouldn't Doug-2006 remember being visited by a future
> version
> of himself, back in 1983?  Wouldn't he remember how that future self
> had
> played, and in that case, wouldn't he be forced to play the same way
> this time?  Perhaps we can get around this by assuming that the 1983
> version submitted to localized amnesia, forgetting the details of the
> incident; or else we could use a model of time travel where a new
> time
> line is formed when the future person reaches the past.

There's also the fact that the payoff matrix is inherently warped by
time travel.  If I gave $1000 to myself about a decade ago, interest
from investments mean I'd likely have more than that $1000 today
(especially if I also communicated which stocks would peak highest, and
when).

> How many of us might be more motivated to follow through
> on
> our commitments, plans and dreams, if we could somehow be confronted
> by
> our younger selves and called to account for how we had lived our
> lives?

I know I'm unusual in this, but I still proceed with my dreams from
younger years - not forgotten, not at all, but rather built up and
sharpened over the years, steadily growing towards reality.