From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Fri Jun 30 2000 - 08:48:42 MDT
Hal Finney wrote:
> > Suppose a genie told you that he could grant you one wish (which may be
> > composed of an infinite number of subwishes), but first you would be
> > tortured for a year, and then the wish only has 1% chance of coming true.
>...
>Maybe the rational thing to do is to take the torture, in the sense that
>if I did, afterwards I would say it was the right decision. But perhaps
>I am too blinded by fear to go through with it?
It is possible that your preferences are not time-consistent. That is,
you-today and you-later are in principle two different creatures with two
different sets of preferences. They need not agree on decisions.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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