benelliott comments on Rationalists don't care about the future - Less Wrong

3 Post author: PhilGoetz 15 May 2011 07:48AM

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Comment author: benelliott 18 May 2011 05:12:18PM *  1 point [-]

Elsewhere in this thread, you have criticised hyperbolic discounting for being 'irrational', by which I presume you mean the fact that is inconsistent under reflection, while exponentials are not.

It would be more reasonable to discount for distance from the present, whether forwards or backwards in time.

Your new function is also inconsistent under reflection.

Maybe this is an argument for not discounting, since that is the only possible way to have a past-future symmetric, reflexively consistent utility function.

Just a thought.

Comment author: timtyler 21 May 2011 07:36:02PM *  0 points [-]

Elsewhere in this thread, you have criticised hyperbolic discounting for being 'irrational', by which I presume you mean the fact that is inconsistent under reflection, while exponentials are not.

Not really - this is the problem.

Comment author: benelliott 21 May 2011 08:12:23PM 0 points [-]

We are referring to the same fact. Reflective inconsistency is a trivial consequence of dynamic inconsistency.