MinutePhysics: Problem with Newcomb's paradox

Recently, Veritasium has posted a video on Newcomb's paradox. This paradox is based on a decision-making problem. Namely, you are presented with two boxes. Box A is transparent and contains a small amount of money, while Box B is opaque. Box B might contain a large amount of money or be empty. Its contents are decided ahead of time by a machine, which has perfect prediction record. If the machine predicts that you will take only Box B, it will put large amount of money inside it. Otherwise, it will keep Box B empty. So, will you take only Box B (and believe in predictor accuracy) or will you take both boxes (and believe in game theory)? For more details on the paradox and its solutions watch the video below.

After watching the video above I wasn't particularly fond of the paradox. Mostly because the paradox seemed to be artificially contrived. After watching minute physics (previously known as One Minute Physics) video I still feel the same way, but surprisingly this paradox prompts us to consider the nature of our own reality. I encourage you to watch it as well.

I especially liked the part about random 5 year old falsely achieving incredible accuracy.