Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on If it looks like utility maximizer and quacks like utility maximizer... - Less Wrong

14 Post author: taw 11 June 2009 06:34PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 11 June 2009 06:59:00PM 5 points [-]
  • Utility maximization related to some selection process - evolutionary fitness, money, chance of getting elected - is very common and quite reliable.
  • We will not find any utility maximization related outside selection process - so we are not maximizers when it comes to happiness, global well-being, ecological responsibility, and so on.

This strikes me as a key insight.

(Not phrased as precisely as it could be, but still a key insight.)