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What is Newcomb’s paradox?
In philosophy and mathematics, Newcomb’s paradox, i.e., the irony or paradox of Newcomb, also known as Newcomb’s problem, is a thinking experiment between two players, played as a game, one of which Aims to be able to predict the future.
History of Newcomb’s Paradox –
William Newcomb of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory of the University of California created the paradox of Newcomb. It was first analyzed in 1969 and published in a philosophy paper spread by Robert Nozick to the philosophical community. It appeared in Martin Gardner’s “Mathematical Games” in the March 1973 issue of Scientific American. In today’s modern era, this decision is a much-publicized problem in the philosophical branch of theory.
Its relation to consciousness
Newcomb’s irony can also be related to machine consciousness, mainly if a correct simulation of a person’s brain will produce that person’s consciousness. For example, suppose we take the prophet as a machine that stimulates the brain of the selector to arrive at its prediction when faced with which box problem. Suppose that simulation generates the consciousness of the selector. In that case, the selector cannot tell whether they are standing in front of the boxes in the real world or the virtual world generated by the simulation in the past. The “virtual” selector will thus tell the predictor which option the “real” selector will make.
Its relation to fatalism
Newcomb’s paradox – Newcomb’s irony relates to logical fatalism or determinism in that they both assume absolute certainty of the future. In logical determinism, this notion of certainty produces circular reasoning (“A future event is certain, so it is sure to happen”). At the same time, Newcomb’s paradox assumes whether its game participants can influence the predetermined outcome.
Sources
- Levi, Isaac (1982). “A Note on Newcombmania.” Journal of Philosophy. 79 (6): 337–42. DOI:10.2307/2026081. JSTOR 2026081. (A paper that discusses the popularity of Newcomb’s problem)
- Collins, John. “Newcomb’s Problem,” International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Neil Smelser and Paul Baltes (eds), Elsevier Science (2001)
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