wedrifid comments on Call for new SIAI Visiting Fellows, on a rolling basis - Less Wrong

29 Post author: AnnaSalamon 01 December 2009 01:42AM

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

Article Navigation

Comments (264)
Tags: siai existential_risk

Comments (264)

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

Comment author: wedrifid 07 December 2009 03:28:12PM *  0 points [-]

The model of the world you have can dominate the DT, in determining the action taken. And in the end that is what we care about, the action taken in response to the input and history.

No, the model of the world you have can not dominate the DT or, for that matter, do anything at all. There must be a decision theory either explicit or implicit in some action generating algorithm that you are running. Then it is just a matter of how much much effort you wish to spend developing each.

I also think that DT with its fixed model ignores the possibility of communication between the bit running through the model and picking an action and the bit that creates the model. For example if I see a very good contest/offer I might think it too good to be true, and look for more information to alter my model and find the catch before taking the offer up.

A Decision Theory doesn't make you naive or impractical. Deciding to look for more information is just a good decision.

Comment author: whpearson 08 December 2009 08:44:37AM *  0 points [-]

No, the model of the world you have can not dominate the DT or, for that matter, do anything at all. There must be a decision theory either explicit or implicit in some action generating algorithm that you are running. Then it is just a matter of how much much effort you wish to spend developing each.

I spoke imprecisely. I meant that the part of the program that generates the model of the world dominates the DT in terms of what action is taken. That is; with a fixed DT you can make it perform any action dependent upon what model you give it. The converse is not true as the model constrains the possible actions.

A Decision Theory doesn't make you naive or impractical. Deciding to look for more information is just a good decision.

I think in terms of code and Types. Most discussions of DTs don't have discussions of feeding back the utilities to the model making section, so I'm assuming a simple type. It might be wrong, but at least I can be precise about what I am talking about. See my reply to Sebastian.

Powered by Reddit Powered by Reddit