Dorikka comments on Utility Maximization and Complex Values - Less Wrong

3 Post author: XiXiDu 19 June 2011 04:06PM

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Comment author: Dorikka 20 June 2011 04:47:13AM 1 point [-]

these utility functions form tiny fraction of all possible functions, so if you don't think your own function is of this type then it probably isn't.

I generally agree with your conclusions in this comment, but I don't think that this is correct reasoning. The fact that a certain type of utility function is a really small fraction of all possible utility functions is not strong evidence for the conclusion that P(your utility function is not of this type | you don't think it is) because there may be a certain tendancy in human utility functions towards a certain type of function, even though functions of that type occupy an infinitesimally small fraction of function-space.