arundelo comments on Post retracted: If you follow expected utility, expect to be money-pumped - Less Wrong

0 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 29 October 2009 12:06PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 October 2009 12:22:52PM *  14 points [-]

If you have a consistent utility function over outcomes, you cannot be money-pumped. This is not a utility function over changes in money, it is a utility function over total money.

This actually struck me as a problem with your argument from earlier, though I didn't point it out at that time. I think you plain don't understand expected utility, actually.

In the above, the question is the preference between a mix of (.5(B + 1) + .5(B + 2)) vs. (1(B + 1.49)) and a consistent version of a human (as opposed to an actual human) would prefer the former lottery given at least a hundred bucks in bank B. After that, of course, the amount in B changes. But if you start by putting consistent utilities over the total amount of money, you cannot be money-pumped.

Comment author: arundelo 29 October 2009 07:24:57PM 0 points [-]