cousin_it comments on The Second Best - Less Wrong

13 Post author: Wei_Dai 26 July 2009 10:58PM

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Comment author: cousin_it 27 July 2009 07:11:21PM *  0 points [-]

I regarded categorical imperative as an obvious result of rational and selfish decision making.

Argue this point in more detail, it isn't obvious.

Comment author: Jonii 27 July 2009 07:36:48PM 0 points [-]

It's not obvious, yeah. My failure of communication on the original post. My point, as I intended it, was that I mixed my intuitive feeling("rationalist should follow categorical imperative because it feels sensible") to an obvious fact. My reasoning was based on simplistic model of PD where punishing for non-normative things and trusting and abiding otherwise works. So, I was basically asking for clarification in a guise of a statement :)

Comment author: Wei_Dai 28 July 2009 03:12:36AM 0 points [-]

I think my earlier response to you (now deleted) misunderstood your comment. I'm still not sure I understand you now, but I'll give it another shot.

All of the things I listed are commonly accepted within the relevant fields as individually rational. It boils down to the idea that it is individually rational to defect in a one-shot PD where you'll never see the other player again and the result will never be made public. Yes, we have lots of mechanisms to improve group rationality, like laws, institutions, social norms, etc., but all of that just shows how hard group rationality is.

Here's another example that might help make my point. How much "CPU time" does an average person's brain spend to play status games instead of doing something socially productive? That is hardly rational on a group level, but we have little hope of reducing it by any significant amount.

Comment author: Z_M_Davis 27 July 2009 07:29:07PM 0 points [-]
Comment author: Wei_Dai 28 July 2009 03:02:45AM 1 point [-]