Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Rationalists lose when others choose - Less Wrong

-10 Post author: PhilGoetz 16 June 2009 05:50PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 16 June 2009 10:43:46PM 4 points [-]

There are instances where nature penalizes the rational. For instance, revenge is irrational, but being thought of as someone who would take revenge gives advantages.

My decision theory which this margin is too small to contain, would, in fact, take revenge, as well as one-boxing on Newcomb's Problem, keeping its promise to Parfit's Hitchhiker, etcetera, so long as it believed the other could correctly simulate it, or attached high probability to being correctly simulated. (Nor would it be particularly difficult to simulate! The decision is straightforward enough.)

If rationality means optimizing expected selfish utility

And having gotten that far, I gave up on the article.

Comment author: SoullessAutomaton 16 June 2009 10:47:21PM 12 points [-]

My decision theory which this margin is too small to contain,

I am probably not the only individual who remains curious as to when you might stumble upon a sufficiently spacious margin for this purpose.