Douglas_Knight comments on Utilons vs. Hedons - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Psychohistorian 10 August 2009 07:20PM

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Comment author: outlawpoet 11 August 2009 03:39:20AM 0 points [-]

I see, I misparsed the terms of the argument, I thought it was doubling my current utilons, you're positing I have a 90% chance of doubling my currently expected utility over my entire life.

The reason I bring up the terms in my utility function, is that they reference concrete objects, people, time passing, and so on. So, measuring expected utility, for me, involves projecting the course of the world, and my place in it.

So, assuming I follow the suggested course of action, and keep drawing cards until I die, to fulfill the terms, Omega must either give me all the utilons before I die, or somehow compress the things I value into something that can be achieved in between drawing cards as fast as I can. This either involves massive changes to reality, which I can verify instantly, or some sort of orthogonal life I get to lead while simultaneously drawing cards, so I guess that's fine.

Otherwise, given the certainty that I will die essentially immediately, I certainly don't recognize that I'm getting a 90% chance of doubled expected utility, as my expectations certainly include whether or not I will draw a card.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 11 August 2009 05:41:44AM 1 point [-]

current utilons

I don't think "current utilons" makes that much sense. Utilons should be for a utility function, which is equivalent to a decision function, and the purpose of decisions is probably to influence the future. So utility has to be about the whole future course of the world. "Currently expected utilons" means what you expect to happen, averaged over your uncertainty and actual randomness, and this is what the dilemma should be about.

"Current hedons" certainly does make sense, at least because hedons haven't been specified as well.