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taw comments on Akrasia, hyperbolic discounting, and picoeconomics - Less Wrong
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I just have one question, it's so obvious but I don't remember it being asked anywhere.
Humans and all animals tested use hyperbolic discounting + hacks on top of it to deal with paradoxes. Why hasn't evolution implemented exponential discounting in any animal? Is it technically impossible the way brain works (perhaps by local optimum), or is hyperbolic discounting + hacks better in the real world than exponential discounting?
I think this is a far more fundamental problem than anything else about akrasia.
Reading the Wikipedia article on hyperbolic discounting it seems like there is some evidence for a quasi-hyperbolic discounting. Looking at the formula, the interpretation is exponential discounting for all future times considered but with a special treatment of the present.
How to explain this? It is not unlikely that the brain uses one system for thinking about now and another about the future. Considering the usual workings of evolution, the latter is most likely a much later feature than the former. Considering this, one could perhaps even argue that it would be surprising if there wasn't any differences between the systems.
There seems to be some literature referenced at the wiki article. I suggest looking into it if you are interested. I sadly don't have the time right now.
I'm curious to know the answer to that one. My guess is that hyperbolic discounting is technically much easier to implement, and the circumstances of animals in the wild provide fewer opportunities for akrasia so it's not worth the cost of fixing. However there is doubtless room for more investigation of the evolutionary psychology of hyperbolic discounting.
EDIT also see this comment