MIRI senior researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky and executive director Nate Soares have a new introductory paper out on decision theory: "Functional decision theory:
Functional Decision Theory — LessWrong
Functional Decision Theory is a decision theory described by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, an attempt at a logical decision theory, which says that agents should treat one’s decision as the output of a fixed mathematical function that answers the question, “Which output of this very function would yield the best outcome?”. It is a replacement of Timeless Decision Theory, and it outperforms other decision theories such as Causal Decision Theory (CDT) and Evidential Decision Theory (EDT). For example, it ends with better outcomes than CDT on Newcomb's Problem, ends better than EDT on the smoking lesion problem, and ends better than both in Parfit’s hitchhiker problem. In Newcomb's Problem, an FDT agent reasons that Omega must have used some kind of model of her decision procedure in order to make an accurate prediction of her behavior. Omega's model and the agent are therefore both calculating the same function (the agent's decision procedure): they are subjunctively dependent on that function. Given perfect prediction by Omega, there are therefore only two outcomes in Newcomb's Problem: either the agent one-boxes and Omega predicted it (because its model also one-boxed), or the agent two-boxes and Omega predicted that. Because one-boxing then results in a million and two-boxing only in a thousand dollars, the FDT agent one-boxes. External links: * Functional decision theory: A new theory of instrumental rationality * Cheating Death in Damascus * Decisions are for making bad outcomes inconsistent * On Functional Decision Theory by Wolfgang Schwarz See Also: * Timeless Decision Theory * Updateless Decision Theory * Superrationality * Introduction to Logical Decision Theory for Computer Scientists * Introduction to Logical Decision Theory for Economists * Introduction to Logical Decision Theory for Analytic Philosophers * An Introduction to Logical Decision Theory for Everyone Else
The science of consciousness does not need another theory, it needs a minimal unifying model
Abstract. This article discusses a hypothesis recently put forward by Kanai et al., according to which information generation constitutes a functional basi
steve hsu on Twitter / X
I think I’ve published the first research article in theoretical physics in which the main idea came from an AI - GPT5 in this case. The physics research paper itself (on QFT and state-dependent quantum mechanics) has been published in Physics Letters B.I've written an… pic.twitter.com/6IYDTS2JAt— steve hsu (@hsu_steve) December 3, 2025
State of AI Report 2025
The State of AI Report analyses the most interesting developments in AI. Read and download here.
Alexander Lerchner, The Abstraction Fallacy: Why AI Can Simulate But Not Instantiate Consciousness - PhilPapers
Computational functionalism dominates current debates on AI consciousness. This is the hypothesis that subjective experience emerges entirely from abstract causal topology, regardless of the underlying physical substrate. We argue this view ...
Ground Decisions
Planes don’t fly themselves – they just cruise themselves. Takeoff, landing, and the big decisions happen with humans. Same with AI. What are the ground decisions in the software factor…
DIMACS :: Details
« IBM/DIMACS/DATA-INSPIRE Workshop on Bridging Game Theory and Machine Learning for Multi-party Decision Making
233. "The Illusion of Thinking" — Thoughts on This Important Paper
This is a fantastic paper. I just love it. tl;dr AI is not human. Anthropomorphization has been bad for AI, LLMs, and Chat. Clippy walked so today's AI could run.
Is there something it is like to be an AI?
Posted on Wednesday 2 Jul 2025. 1,593 words, 6 links. By Matt Webb.
"AI" and Productivity
[I keep bringing these up on Bluesky, so I think it’s time to gather them up and make a post out of them.] This is a collection of articles...
I’ve been hearing about this project for years from @fernpizza.bsky.social and I’m stoked to see it out. It’s wildly elegant mixture of theory and empirics, with novel methods that manages to ask and answer deep questions about selection. Paper of the year. science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adx0665
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
www.science.orgAbsolutely incredible figure from this journal article arguing that AI should be accepted into the publication and peer review process. #MedSky doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2025-1180
Absolutely incredible figure from this journal article arguing that AI should be accepted into the publication and peer review process. #MedSky doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2025-1180
AI and/for science
Simon on Twitter / X
Przemek Chojecki | PC on Twitter / X
AI Simulation Platform for Human Behavior | Simile
AI for science: What can it do? Can it do things? Let’s find out!
OSF
Previewing the Model Hardware Standard
