Wei_Dai comments on Towards a New Decision Theory - Less Wrong

50 Post author: Wei_Dai 13 August 2009 05:31AM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 20 August 2009 11:55:24AM 0 points [-]

Ok, I understood this on my second reading, but I don't know what to make of it either. Why did you decide to think about agents like this, or did the idea just pop into your head and you wanted to see if it has any applications?

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 20 August 2009 12:18:42PM 1 point [-]

It's more or less a direct rendition of the idea of UDT: actions (with state transitions) depend on state of knowledge, so what does it say about the geometry of state transitions?

More relevant to the recent discussion: Where does logical dependence come from and how to track it in a representation detailed enough? The source of logical dependence, beside what comes from the common algorithm, is actions and observations. In forward-time, all states following a given observation become dependent on that observation, and in backward-time, states preceding an action. A single observation can make multiple actions depend on it, and thus make them dependent.

Connection with logic: states of knowledge in the state network are programs/proofs, and actions/observations are variables parameterizing more general programs that resolve into specific states of knowledge given these actions/observations. Also related to game semantics. This is one dimension along which to compress the knowledge representation and seek further understanding.