A perfect predictor is an agent which can predict the behaviour of an agent or the outcome of an event with perfect accuracy. It is often given the name Omega, but Omega sometimes refers to an almost perfect predictor.

Possibility and relevance:

Perfect predictors are generally understood to be impossible due to the Uncertainty Principle or just from our general experience that perfect observation or accuracy aren't a feature of our universe. Some people claim this makes them irrelevant for real decision theory problems. See the page on hypotheticals for further discussion on whether or not this is valid. Some people have objected on the basis of free will.

Some people have attempted to make these problems more realistic and concrete by reframing it in terms of computational agents with access to other agents source code or the program representing the environment. This won't be perfect in the sense that there's nothing stopping a machine error or a hacker messing ruining the prediction, but it is close enough that it can be approximately to perfect predictors....

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