Larks comments on Stupid Questions Open Thread - Less Wrong

42 Post author: Costanza 29 December 2011 11:23PM

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Comment author: Larks 30 December 2011 05:07:22AM 2 points [-]

You should probably be prepared to change how much you plan to spend on exploring based on the initial information recieved.

Comment author: RomeoStevens 31 December 2011 09:12:56AM 0 points [-]

This has me confused as well.
Assume a large area divided into two regions. Region A has slot machines with average payout 50, while region B has machines with average payout 500. I am blindfolded and randomly dropped into region A or B. The first slot machine I try has payout 70. I update in the direction of being in region A. Doesn't this affect how many resources I wish to spend doing exploration?

Comment author: TheOtherDave 31 December 2011 05:32:20PM *  0 points [-]

Are you also assuming that you know all of those assumed facts about the area?

I would certainly expect that how many resources I want to spend on exploration will be affected by how much a priori knowledge I have about the system. Without such knowledge, the amount of exploration-energy I'd have to expend to be confident that there are two regions A and B with average payout as you describe is enormous.

Comment author: Andy_McKenzie 30 December 2011 06:29:19PM 0 points [-]

Do you mean to set the parameter specifying the amount of resources (e.g., time steps) to spend exploring (before switching to full-exploiting) based on the info you receive upon your first observation? Also, what do you mean by "probably"?