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timtyler comments on The Domain of Your Utility Function - Less Wrong
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Utility maximisation is not really a theory about how humans work. AFAIK, nobody thinks that humans have an internal representation of utility which they strive to maximise. Those that entertain this idea are usually busy constructing a straw-man critique.
It is like how you can model catching a ball with PDEs. You can build a pretty good model like that - even though it bears little relationship to the actual internal operation.
[2011 edit: hmm - the mind actually works a lot more like that than I previously thought!]
That's kind of ironic that you mention PDE's, since PCT actually proposes that we do use something very like an evolutionary algorithm to satisfice our multi-goal controller setups. IOW, I don't think it's quite accurate to say that PDE's "bear little relationship to the actual internal operation."