this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 60 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (20 children)

The Costanza Rule is real, but any attempt to utilize it is a paradox.

Rule: any decision I make is the wrong decision because I made it therefore I should always do the opposite.

But to do the opposite is also a choice I am making and therefore it too will be the wrong choice.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 1 week ago (15 children)

Reminds me of a trolley problem variant I saw once. It went roughly like this:

A trolley is headed for Track A, where a single person is tied to the tracks. You can pull a lever and cause the trolley to switch to Track B, which enters a tunnel that you cannot see inside. Track B might have 3 people tied to the tracks, or it might be free of people. You can't see which.

Two hours ago, a perfect prediction machine inside the tunnel predicted whether you would pull the lever.

  • If it predicted that you would pull the lever (sending the trolley into the tunnel), then it tied 3 people to Track B, thus setting it up so pulling the lever would kill 3 people.
  • If it predicted that you would not pull the lever, then it ensured Track B is free of obstacles.

The perfect prediction machine is guaranteed to have made the correct prediction. Do you pull the lever?

[–] davad@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

With no other information on how likely each is, and assuming the likelihood of each prediction stays the same, you should never pull the lever. The expected number of people in the tunnel is 1.5.

If the probability of there being zero people in the tunnel gets above 66%, you should pull the lever every time (the expected number of people in the tunnel drops below 1).

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's no probabilities involved. The machine predicts the future perfectly.

[–] davad@lemmy.world 0 points 1 week ago

Perfect predictions are also probabilities. In that case it has a 100% chance of 3, given that you pull the lever.

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