= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
mavant comments on So You Want to Save the World - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (146)
This is an incorrect description of 5-and-10. The description given is of a different problem (one of whose aspects is addressed in the recent cousin_it's writeup, the problem is resolved in that setting by Lemma 2).
5-and-10 problem is concerned with the following (incorrect) line of reasoning by a hypothetical agent:
"I have to decide between $5 and $10. Suppose I decide to choose $5. I know that I'm a money-optimizer, so if I do this, $5 must be more money than $10, so this alternative is better. Therefore, I should choose $5."
I don't really understand how this could occur in a TDT-agent. The agent's algorithm is causally dependent on '(max $5 $10), but considering the counterfactual severs that dependence. Observing a money-optimizer (let's call it B) choosing $5 over $10 would presumably cause the agent (call it A) to update its model of B to no longer depend on '(max $5 $10). Am I missing something here?
Correctly getting to the comparison of $5 and $10 is the whole point of the exercise. An agent is trying to evaluate the consequences of its action, A, which is defined by agent's algorithm and is not known explicitly in advance. To do that, it could in some sense consider hypotheticals where its action assumes its possible values. One such hypothetical could involve a claim that A=$5. The error in question is about looking at the claim that A=$5 and making incorrect conclusions (which would result in an action that doesn't depend on comparing $5 and $10).