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timtyler comments on New FAI paper: 'Learning What to Value' by Daniel Dewey - Less Wrong

10 Post author: lukeprog 09 April 2011 12:11AM

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Comment author: timtyler 09 April 2011 05:49:01PM *  0 points [-]

Well, possibly. I certainly have an idea about what "the state of the universe" refers to aside from my sensory perceptions of it. What we need math for is to see whether it is possible to build an agent whose belief that it is maximising such a quantity survives extensive self-knowledge about its own operation. Without supporting math, we don't have much more than a story.

Comment author: JGWeissman 09 April 2011 06:19:06PM 1 point [-]

What we need math for is to see whether it is possible to build an agent whose belief that it is maximising such a quantity survives extensive self-knowledge about its own operation.

Well, I am an example of an agent who does not want to wirehead for the reasons explained in the posts I linked to. I have some self knowledge about my own operation, though not nearly as much as I would like (I don't know how to program a computer to be me), but I doubt that more self knowledge, barring valley effects, would do anything other than increase my ability to avoid wireheading.