thomblake comments on Why the beliefs/values dichotomy? - Less Wrong

20 Post author: Wei_Dai 20 October 2009 04:35PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (153)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Wei_Dai 20 October 2009 07:56:51PM *  3 points [-]

Suppose I offer you three boxes and ask you to choose one. The first two are transparent, free, and contains an apple and an orange, respectively. The third is opaque, costs a penny, and contains either an apple or an orange, depending on a coin flip I made. Under expected utility maximization, there is no reason for you to choose the third box, regardless of your probability function and utility function. Under UDT1, you can choose the third box, by preferring <apple, orange> to <apple, apple> and <orange, orange> as the outcomes of world programs P1 and P2. In that case, you can't be said to have a belief about whether the real world is P1 or P2.

Comment author: thomblake 21 October 2009 02:02:13PM 0 points [-]

Okay, let's see if I have this straight - you're assuming:

  1. the axiom of independence is necessary for expected utility theory
  2. losing a penny represents some negative amount of utility
  3. one's utility function can't include terms for "the outcomes of world programs" under expected utility theory