# Newcomb's problem

- kind: problem
- status: open
- year: 1960
- authors: William Newcomb; published by Robert Nozick, 1969

**Statement.** A reliable predictor has filled a box based on its forecast of your choice. Should you take one box or both?

Two principles of rational choice, maximizing expected utility and dominance, give opposite answers. Philosophers split roughly evenly in surveys. The problem matters for how artificial agents should reason when other agents can predict them.

Posed 1960, William Newcomb; published by Robert Nozick, 1969.

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Newcomb's paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newcomb%27s_paradox)

[Value and reason](/wiki/Space:value.md) · [Philosophy](/wiki/Continent:philosophy.md)

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