Undergrad The Sleeping Beauty Problem: Any halfers here?

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The Sleeping Beauty problem raises a debate between "thirders," who argue the probability of the coin landing heads is 1/3, and "halfers," who believe it is 1/2. Proponents of 1/3 argue that the princess's amnesia prevents her from gaining new information, thus her a posteriori probability remains unchanged. Conversely, halfers contend that since she learns nothing new upon waking, her initial probability of 1/2 should hold. The discussion also explores various scenarios and thought experiments to illustrate the implications of the problem, emphasizing the importance of conditional probabilities. Ultimately, the debate hinges on interpreting the information available to the princess at the moment she is awakened.

What is Sleeping Beauty's credence now for the proposition that the coin landed heads?

  • 1/3

    Votes: 12 33.3%
  • 1/2

    Votes: 11 30.6%
  • It depends on the precise formulation of the problem

    Votes: 13 36.1%

  • Total voters
    36
  • #571
andrewkirk said:
The probability of being woken on Monday in the Tails situation is 1/2 the probability of Tails, which is 0.5 times 0.5 = 0.25. The same goes for Tuesday-Tails.
Hi:andrew:

You seem to be making the same mistake that I made before I recignized my mistake as I explain in my post # 498.
There are two awakenings for tails, not one.

Regards,
Buzz
 
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  • #572
Stephen Tashi said:
posterior probability of heads P(heads | SB is awakened) cannot be calculated from the information in the problem.
I have shown that this is false back in post 255. At this point, I would ask you to stop repeating this false claim.

Stephen Tashi said:
she gives a dishonest answer if she reports the number based on her betting strategy. ...The computation of a betting strategy is independent of such a probability model.
And this is a mistake on your part. The honest price that she would buy or sell the bet is the value of her credence. If she answered with a value that she would not bet on then she would be dishonestly representing her credence
 
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  • #573
Stephen Tashi said:
I'm not sure which experiment you're talking about. Which post was it?
Take the correct calculation of X you did in post 549 and apply it to the version of the puzzle with 99 days. You should get X=1/50, meaning, SB would take 49 to 1 odds against it being Monday.
 
  • #574
andrewkirk said:
Not according to the SEP definition. There is no mention of 'every time' in that definition, because it only envisages one bet.
The puzzle stipulates that she is interviewed every time. That means she is given the same interview every time, because to assume otherwise is to assume dishonest collusion on the part of the experimenters. If they give her a different interview to try to fool her into making a bad bet, they are cheating. It goes without saying in any puzzle that the experimenters are not intentionally cheating.
This situation has the potential for two bets, where the number of times the bet is taken is correlated with the result of the bet.
There is a bet in every interview, that's what establishing the credence, in the interview, means, according to the definition you gave and I am also using. I see that Dale is making that same point.
 
  • #575
Demystifier said:
I believe we need to examine the judgement and perhaps the intentions of these experimenters more closely.
Did these experimenters dupe Sleeping Beauty into taking a dangerous cocktail of drugs in the name of science?

It is the amnesia drug in particular that is of most concern. These drugs, such as Valium and high doses of alcohol are potentially addictive and are associated with suicide. Assuming these experiments are of sufficient value to science (and I am sure they are), they should be designed for minimal use of these drugs.

However, it is clear from the methodology that no such consideration was given.
Why was amnesia induced after Sleeping Beauty responded to the questions on Tuesday?
When the coin came up heads, why was amnesia induced at all?
In fact, once the last interview was conducted on either Monday or Tuesday, why were any additional drugs used at all?


I will also note that this experiment was designed in 2000, decades after the over-prescription of Valium had been widely publicized.

:wink:
 
  • #576
All humor aside, that is actually a good point-- there's no need for amnesia drugs for a heads flip. The answer to the puzzle, 1/3 credence for heads, is the same as long as SB knows she would have forgotten Monday's events had tails been flipped, nothing else is needed. The puzzle specifically says she only forgets the awakening, so the drugs are only needed after the Monday interview and only if tails came up (Returning to humor vein, at least the way it is set up allows the experiment to be done double-blind, though of course the interviewers will also need to be given the amnesia drug, further complicating the ethical dilemma.)
 
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  • #577
stevendaryl said:
I'm not so sure that it matters. It is true that the number of opportunities to bet depends on the coin result. However, each individual opportunity to bet seems to fit the definition.

How can an answer that Sleeping Beauty obtains without considering the probability of ( heads| awake) indicate her credence of that event?

The bet (heads'awak) on Monday is even odds. If offered, the bet on (heads | awake) on Tuesday is sure loser. Just because Sleeping Beauty doesn't know which bet she is making doesn't mean they are "the same to her". Her calculations for what to bet don't involve computing the probability of (heads | awake). She simply uses the fact that p(heads|) = 1/2 and accounts for the probability that she may be for to make two different bets. If she was treating the bets as being the same, her calculations would show they had the same pay-off.
 
  • #578
Ken G said:
Take the correct calculation of X you did in post 549 and apply it to the version of the puzzle with 99 days. You should get X=1/50, meaning, SB would take 49 to 1 odds against it being Monday.

SB is assume to be rational. A rational "halfer" or a "thirder" doesn't use their estimate of p(heads | awake) to decide on their bets. What SB bets should be iindependent of p(heads|awake).
 
  • #579
Dale said:
I have shown that this is false back in post 255. At this point, I would ask you to stop repeating this false claim.
Request denied. The claim isn't false. Your two-line derrivation of the "thirder" claim is not a valid proof. If the "thirder" answer was unique , the "halfer" answer would not be another solution.

And this is a mistake on your part. The honest price that she would buy or sell the bet is the value of her credence. If she answered with a value that she would not bet on then she would be dishonestly representing her credence

SB computes her answer without computing P(heads | awake). In fact, her answer is computed using p(heads) = 1/2. So how does her answer indicate her credence for the event p(heads | awake)?

A rational "halfer" gives the same answer a "thirder" does, so how does credence in P(heads | awake) have anything to do with the bet?
 
  • #580
Stephen Tashi said:
How can an answer that Sleeping Beauty obtains without considering the probability of ( heads| awake) indicate her credence of that event?

I don't understand the question. You wake Sleeping Beauty up. In case she doesn't remember, you remind her of the rules. Then you ask her if she wants to bet on whether it's heads or not. Of course, she will consider the probability of heads given that she's awake in deciding which way to bet.
 
  • #581
stevendaryl said:
I don't understand the question. You wake Sleeping Beauty up. In case she doesn't remember, you remind her of the rules. Then you ask her if she wants to bet on whether it's heads or not. Of course, she will consider the probability of heads given that she's awake in deciding which way to bet.

No.

A rational Sleeping Beauty will know that if she always answer X then the expected net price she must pay for doing so is: (1/2)X + (1/2)(2X) = (3/2)X. Her expected gain from giving that answer is (1/2)(1) + (1/2)(0). So she solves (3/2)X = (1/2) to obtain X = 1/3. This calculation is done using P(Heads) = 1/2 and does not involve computing p(Heads | awake).
 
  • #582
Stephen Tashi said:
No.

A rational Sleeping Beauty will know that if she always answer X then the expected net price she must pay for doing so is: (1/2)X + (1/2)(2X) = (3/2)X. Her expected gain from giving that answer is (1/2)(1) + (1/2)(0). So she solves (3/2)X = (1/2) to obtain X = 1/3. This calculation is done using P(Heads) = 1/2 and does not involve computing p(Heads | awake).

I don't understand the distinction you're making. I would say that that calculation IS the calculation of P(H | Awake). Sleeping Beauty knows that if the experiment were repeated many times, then approximately 1/3 of the times in which she is awake will be when the coin toss was heads, and 2/3 of the times in which she is awake will be when the coin toss was tails. If you want credence to line up with relative frequency, then the credence of heads, given that she is awake, should be 1/3.
 
  • #583
Stephen Tashi said:
SB is assume to be rational. A rational "halfer" or a "thirder" doesn't use their estimate of p(heads | awake) to decide on their bets. What SB bets should be iindependent of p(heads|awake).
Please take your post 549 and use it to calculate, via the very method you used there, the X for it being Monday in the 99 day version. You should get X=1/50, just do the same thing you did in post 549. Is that indeed what you get?
The bet (heads'awak) on Monday is even odds. If offered, the bet on (heads | awake) on Tuesday is sure loser. Just because Sleeping Beauty doesn't know which bet she is making doesn't mean they are "the same to her". Her calculations for what to bet don't involve computing the probability of (heads | awake). She simply uses the fact that p(heads|) = 1/2 and accounts for the probability that she may be for to make two different bets. If she was treating the bets as being the same, her calculations would show they had the same pay-off.
There are two different ways SB can arrive at her credence that the day is Monday, one involving P(heads)=1/2 from the start, and another involving P(heads/awake)=1/3. (That second calculation asserts that her credence that it is Monday equals P(heads|awake) + P(tails|awake)*1/2) That both give the same answer shows that the correct credence that it is Monday is 2/3, which you got using the first calculation involving P(heads) rather than the second calculation involving P(heads|awake). But note that P(heads)=1/2 is not her credence that the coin is heads, P(heads/awake)=1/3 is. This is the mistake you are making.
 
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  • #584
stevendaryl said:
I don't understand the distinction you're making. I would say that that calculation IS the calculation of P(H | Awake).
SB would make the same calculation if she's a "halfer"

Consider this experiment:: A coin is flipped. A red hat is put on your head.. If the coin lands heads, you will be asked "What is a fair price for the the bet that you get $1 if the coin landed heads?" You give some answer X and pay that amount to purchase the bet. If the coin landed tails, you are required to purchase the bet again at the same price.

Is the answer X that you choose to give equal to your creedence for the event "The probability that (the coin landed heads | given I'm wearing a red hat)?
 
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  • #585
The whole discussion comes down to this. Given the rules of the scenario, where SB is interviewed every time she is wakened (not just some arbitrary set chosen by cheating experimenters), we may conclude that every time she is interviewed, it is true that P(heads)= 1/2 and P(heads|awake)=1/3. That's the halfers and thirders right there. The thirders are correctly responding to the question asked, which is, what is her credence given that she has been wakened. The halfers are answering the wrong question, they are simply asking what is the probability that the coin came up heads in the first place, which is not a probability that can be altered.

I think it becomes clear what the halfers are thinking if we consider a 99 day version, but we make the following change. If heads are flipped, SB is interviewed only on Monday. If tails, SB is interviewed on a single randomly chosen day, sampled equally from the 98 days after Monday. In that case, her credence that it is heads is clearly 1/2, that's the halfer thinking. The halfers are claiming her credence is not affected if we change the experiment to interview her all 99 days if it's tails. That's clearly wrong, but to make it perfectly clear, we can simply look at her credence that it is Monday in the two situations. The halfer thinks her credence it is Monday is 1/2 in both versions of the 99-day experiment, because if the coin flips a heads, she gets interviewed on Monday. But that's not half the times she is awakened.
 
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  • #586
stevendaryl said:
To me, the halfer position has a very implausible consequence. There are three possibilities given that Sleeping Beauty is awake:

  1. (Heads, Monday)
  2. (Tails, Monday)
  3. (Tails, Tuesday)
The subjective probabilities of the three, given that she is awake, and given that today is either Monday or Tuesday, must equal 1. So
But the consequence of that position is that P(H | Monday) > P(T | Monday). If being awake tells you nothing about whether it's heads or tails, why would you say that it being Monday tells you something? How can the fact that it's Monday make heads more likely than tails?

"Halfer" answers will seem bizare if you don't think in terms of proability model that is consistent with "halfer" answer.

Compute the probabilities using the "halfer" probability model that I've mentioned before. One probability model consistent with "halfer" viewpoint describes how to select from the 3 events you mentioned in the following manner:

1) Flip the coin

2) If the coin is heads, (Heads & Monday) is selected. (This represents picking the only day SB is awake in the experiment when the coin lands heads.)

If the coin is tails, pick one of the events (Tails&Monday) , (Tails&Tuesday), giving each a probability of 1/2 of being the event selected. (This represents picking one of the events in the experiment "at random" given the coin has landed tails.)
In words, one can visualize SB's thought process upon awakening as: "I might be in either version the experiment the heads-version or the tails- version. I'll assume there is an equal chance of being in either. Given that I'm in the heads-version, it must be Monday. Given I'm in the tails version, it could be Monday or Tuesday. I'll assign an equal probability to those events."
One can object that SB is making unwarranted assumptions, but so is a "thirder" probability model. One can object that SB gets the "wrong" answers, but they are not wrong by the "halfer" probability model. The are "wrong" if the "thirder" model is assumed.

What's especially bizarre about this is that, as far as the thought experiment goes, it doesn't make any difference whether you flip the coin on Monday morning or on Tuesday morning, since it's not necessary to consult the result until Tuesday morning.
SB knows nothing definite about the day or whether the coin must have been flipped already. If you're thinking about the mental processes of someone who knows the coin has not been flipped, you're not thinking about SB's mental processes.
 
  • #587
I think Ken G #585 has got it.

After being briefed on the experiment and before being put to sleep Sunday evening rational SB wonders to herself:

"What is my present credence of heads right now, and what will be my credence of heads when I find myself future awake in an interview?"

What are thirders figuring would be her answers? If the answers are different, how is imagining being awake later different from waiting to find herself awake later, as far as calculations?
 
  • #588
Stephen Tashi said:
"Halfer" answers will seem bizare if you don't think in terms of probability model that is consistent with "halfer" answer.

Forget about probability models. Just consider that Sleeping Beauty has just awakened. You tell her that today is Monday and that tomorrow we're going to flip a coin to decide whether to wake her up (and if you do wake her up, she'll have no memory of Monday having happened). You ask her: What's the likelihood that the coin flip tomorrow will be heads. The halfer answer has to be 2/3.

What probability model can make that sensible? How does something that we're going to do tomorrow after the coin flip affect the probability of the coin flip?
 
  • #589
bahamagreen said:
I think Ken G #585 has got it.

After being briefed on the experiment and before being put to sleep Sunday evening rational SB wonders to herself:

"What is my present credence of heads right now, and what will be my credence of heads when I find myself future awake in an interview?"

What are thirders figuring would be her answers? If the answers are different, how is imagining being awake later different from waiting to find herself awake later, as far as calculations?

Suppose instead of waking once if heads and twice if tails, we said that you wake zero times if heads and two times if tails. Then it would make perfect sense for Sleeping Beauty to say:

"The probability that the coin flip will be heads is 1/2. But if on Monday or Tuesday I'm awake, I'll know that it was definitely tails."

So the number of times being awakened definitely affects her answer of "What credence of heads will you give when you're awakened?"
 
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  • #590
Ken G said:
The thirders are correctly responding to the question asked, which is, what is her credence given that she has been wakened.

One does not need to be "thirder" to compute what answer should be given.

Consider this situation. A coin is flipped. The bet is "You get $1 if the coin lands heads and you lose $2 if the coin lands tails". Is the fair price for the bet equal to your credence for the event "The coin landed heads"?

No, it isn't.. By the definition of credence cited several times in this thread, your credence for "The coin landed heads" is supposed to be the fair price you set for the bet "You get $1 if the coin lands heads" - with no other consequences.
 
  • #591
stevendaryl said:
Forget about probability models.

I don't think questions about probability can be decided by forgetting about probability models - but I understand the frustration they bring.

Just consider that Sleeping Beauty has just awakened. You tell her that today is Monday and that tomorrow we're going to flip a coin to decide whether to wake her up (and if you do wake her up, she'll have no memory of Monday having happened). You ask her: What's the likelihood that the coin flip tomorrow will be heads. The halfer answer has to be 2/3.

What probability model can make that sensible?
I just gave you one.

How does something that we're going to do tomorrow after the coin flip affect the probability of the coin flip?
If the coin is flipped before SB is awakened for the first time, how do "thirders" explain that SB's awakening goes back in time and affects how the coin landed?

Conditional probabilities do not imply any physical cause-and-effect relations. Neither "halfers' nor "thirders" should expect to justify their answers by some cause-and-effect physical model.
 
  • #592
Stephen Tashi said:
One does not need to be "thirder" to compute what answer should be given.

Consider this situation. A coin is flipped. The bet is "You get $1 if the coin lands heads and you lose $2 if the coin lands tails". Is the fair price for the bet equal to your credence for the event "The coin landed heads"?
Of course not, and that's why I am not using that meaning. I am saying, the credence is the fair price she would pay, X, to receive a $1 payoff if she's right. That's exactly what is 1/3 for "heads" each time she is wakened, as is easy to show in repeated trials.

In my opinion it is crucial to avoid probability arguments, because then people ask questions like "what is the actual probability the coin came out heads," and of course there is nothing that goes back in time and changes that in some absolute sense, like a force on the coin. We should instead think in terms of fair betting odds, which is what credence actually is. One can do it with probability, but subtle issues enter, like what counts as information that can cause a reassessment of a probability. But betting odds make the situation way easier, it becomes an actual way to make or lose money. We can actually do the experiment, and bilk the halfers out of their life savings.
 
  • #593
stevendaryl said:
Suppose instead of waking once if heads and twice if tails, we said that you wake zero times if heads and two times if tails. Then it would make perfect sense for Sleeping Beauty to say:

"The probability that the coin flip will be heads is 1/2. But if on Monday or Tuesday I'm awake, I'll know that it was definitely tails."

So the number of times being awakened definitely affects her answer of "What credence of heads will you give when you're awakened?"
Yes, this example shows clearly that being wakened does indeed involve new information that changes SB's assessment of the heads probability. What is confusing the halfers is they think the heads probability is a set thing, specified when the coin is flipped, but probabilities actually mean what is consistent with the information you have. In the way the puzzle is formulated, it's subtle what that new information is, so your version makes it clear that being awakened is a form of information. For halfers reading this, if you play bridge, consider that every bridge hand has a probability of being dealt, but much of the skill of bridge amounts to updating that probability using information gathered during the bidding and play. So "the probability they have the queen" is not set by the deal, because probabilities are more active animals than that. That this is a subtle point is my reason for avoiding probabilities in favor of simply odds payoffs, ergo the relevance of the game of poker for those who have played it.
 
  • #594
Ken G said:
Of course not, and that's why I am not using that meaning. I am saying, the credence is the fair price she would pay, X, to receive a $1 payoff if she's right.

But you are adding the condition that she has to pay X twice if she's wrong. So you are making the bet have consequences similar to the example I gave.
That's exactly what is 1/3 for "heads" each time she is wakened, as is easy to show in repeated trials.

I agree that saying 1/3 is the correct strategy. What I'm saying is the definition of credence for an event E is supposed to be a "pure" bet on E. Your opinion is that because the experimenter uses the words "What is your credence for the event 'the coin landed heads'" that SB is being offered a "pure" bet on that event. She is not. She is being offered the bet: " If coin lands heads you win $1 and if it lands tails you lose twice what you offered for the bet".
 
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  • #595
Stephen Tashi said:
But you are adding the condition that she has to pay X twice if she's wrong.
No, I'm saying that she has to pay X every time she takes a bet that is wrong. That's just how betting works.
I agree that saying 1/3 is the correct strategy.
This is the crucial point-- that's all credence means. So you are not doing anything wrong in your mathematics, and you cannot be made to lose money. You are simply not using the definition of credence correctly-- that definition is, you pay X, and lose X, every time your bet is wrong, regardless of how often that may be. If X is the ratio of the cost of a bet to the payoff, and if you break even with some given X, then X is your credence. It's not an abstract definition, it's a practical one, relevant to all betting games of chance.
 
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  • #596
Ken G said:
No, I'm saying that she has to pay X every time she takes a bet that is wrong. That's just how betting works.
This is the crucial point-- that's all credence means.

Your'e entitled to make-up you own definition of "credence". I'm talking about the definition that has been cited several times in this thread:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/imprecise-probabilities/

This boils down to the following analysis:

Your degree of belief in E is p iff p units of utility is the price at which you would buy or sell a bet that pays 1 unit of utility if E, 0 if not E.

If the experimenter phrases the question as "What is your credence that it will rain tomorrow" and the consequence of SP's answer is that she will receive $1 if the coin landed heads and lose twice what she offered for the bet if it lands tails then SB's answer should be 1/3. This is the best strategy. That answer is not her credence for the event "it will rain tomorrow". To get her credence for rain tomorrow, she is supposed to buy the the bet "you get $1 if it rains tomorrow". Her credence for rain tomorrow is not measured by the price she would pay for the bet "You get $1 if it rains tomorrow and lose twice what you paid for the bet if it doesn't".
 
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  • #597
Assuming the coin is flipped between explaining the experiment and putting her to sleep...

I am asking about the Wiki version of the experiment according to which she knows what she is going to be asked when interviewed. It is only natural for her to wonder why she could not answer the future interview question immediately after understanding the experiment rather than waiting for an interview. It is also rational for her to wonder and check to see if her interview answer would be different than her answer before retiring Sunday evening. I'm asking if thirders would figure she gets two different answers.
 
  • #598
Stephen Tashi said:
Your'e entitled to make-up you own definition of "credence". I'm talking about the definition that has been cited several times in this thread:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/imprecise-probabilities/
I am not making up my own, that is precisely the definition I am using. You pay X every time you bet, that's what it says. You get $1 when you win, that's what it says. That's what I'm saying, that's what is right. Credence never has anything to do with how many times you bet, that's why that element is never mentioned in its definition. In fact, SB is free to bet any number of times she likes, she can bet 10 times in one waking, and 5 times in another. It never affects the credence at all, because none of that will ever affect the fair odds!
 
  • #599
bahamagreen said:
It is only natural for her to wonder why she could not answer the future interview question immediately after understanding the experiment rather than waiting for an interview.
And indeed she could, she merely needs to include the information she will have available then, compared to now. (She knows she will be wakened, that's information as proven in the example where there is never any waking for a heads.) The situation is like this. You are playing bridge, and you know there's a 50-50 chance the queen was dealt to either of your opponents. So that's your credence at the start of the hand. You know you won't have to decide which way to do the finesse until later in the hand, so you play the other suits and gather information. Let's imagine you know you will be able to ascertain which opponent has the queen based on how you play the hand (it doesn't matter how you'd actually know that, it's a hypothetical example). It is natural for you to ask what your credence is going to be after you have done that-- the point is, at the beginning of the hand, you have 50-50 credence, and at that later point in the hand, you know your credence will be certain, even as you are thinking at the start of the hand. So it makes no difference when you do the thinking, what matters is what information you know you are going to have available at the time you ascertain your credence. This is a perfectly practical consideration, it is the reason airline pilots are trained to make whatever decision will allow them to gather more information before they have to make the life-or-death decision. It's the most practical consideration there is-- credence at a given moment is based on available information at that moment.
I'm asking if thirders would figure she gets two different answers.
And the answer is yes, just like the bridge player, just like the airline pilot. To get the right credence, you don't need to have the information the whole time, you only need to know, the whole time, that you will have information when you ascertain the credence.
 
  • #600
JeffJo said:
Use four volunteers, and the four cards I described before (with (H,Mon), (H,Tue), (T,Mon), and (T,Tue) written on them). Deal the cards to the four, and put them in separate rooms. Using one coin flip, and waken three of them on Monday, and Tuesday. Leave the one whose dealt card matches both the day, and the coin flip, asleep. Ask each for her confidence that the coin matches her card.

Obviously, if you show each Beauty her card, her answer has to be the same as the original Beauty's. Since it is the same regardless of what card is dealt, you don't have to show it to any of them. If you don't show it to any of them, you can put all three awake Beauties in a room together to discuss their answers. All have the same information, so all answers have to be the same. Since exactly one of the three has a card that matches the coin flip, that answer must be 1/3.

You seem to be making a big assumption without explicitly stating it.

Suppose there are 1001 beauties: 1 winner who wakes up 1000 days in a row, and 1000 losers who wake up once in that time. Each thinks on sunday "There is a 1000/1001 chance that I wake up next to the winner."

Your assumption is that not only must they answer the same way to "am I the winner?", but that the correct way to compute probability is to divide it up equally among those with symmetric information. That is, even if I correctly believe there is a 1000/1001 chance that I will wake up next to the winner, when I actually do wake up next to someone I should split the probability evenly, giving myself a 1/2 chance of being the winner.

But you haven't justified that assumption. I argue that, if I am correct in believing I have a 1000/1001 chance of waking up next to the winner, then when I wake up next to someone it can make me think they are the winner. I am no longer indifferent to them because they are across from me when I wake up, which I didn't know would happen. But I did know I would wake up on the same day as myself.

The fact that they have symmetric information that leads them to believe I am the winner is odd, but I don't see why it requires me to "divide the probability evenly."
Dale said:
The bet is implied by the definition of credence. So it is every time she is asked about her credence, which is every interview.

They were stated in the original problem. Beauty is asked about her credence in each interview so the implied bet is necessarily offered each interview also.
This is just false. The definition of credence does not provide the ability to see into the future or the forgotten past.

You are adding that ability because credence is extremely hard to define in the actual problem. But sleeping beauty considering a bet being offered now does not imply that she can rely on the existence of specific past or future bets. That simply isn't in the definition, and it has nothing to do with cheating on the part of the experimenters.

It may be that we can't come up with a coherent way to apply the definition of credence to this situation. Or maybe we can say that she accepts bets on sunday when she has P(H) = 1/2. Or maybe we can use reflection to wednesday at noon when she has P(H) = 1/2. Or maybe we should consider "surprise", in which case the lottery example is compelling to me. The thirder answer means that sleeping beauty can become arbitrarily confident that she won an arbitrarily unlikely lottery.
Dale said:
A is Beauty is awakened during the experiment (i.e. with amnesia, being interviewed, and being asked her credence that it is heads).

Are you under the impression that beauty always has amnesia when asked her credence? The experiment goes like this:

1/2: sunday coin flip heads -> monday interview
1/2: sunday coin flip tails -> monday interview -> (amnesia regarding monday) -> tuesday interview

Note that there has been no amnesia before the monday interview, and that there is never any amnesia that severs the causal link between the sunday coin flip and the current interview.

This is a crucial point. It is not enough for sleeping beauty to be told the rules when she wakes up, even if you tell her it is the first time the experiment has ever been performed. If she has total amnesia, then it is too late. Her awakening is already selected by the time you explain, and it becomes a different problem. The unbroken causal link from sunday is essential.
 

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