lukeprog comments on The Human's Hidden Utility Function (Maybe) - Less Wrong

44 Post author: lukeprog 23 January 2012 07:39PM

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Comment author: lukeprog 25 January 2012 06:09:34AM 0 points [-]

Suppose that by "values" in that sentence I meant something similar to the firing rates of certain populations of neurons, and by "normative requirements" I meant what I'd mean if I had solved metaethics.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 25 January 2012 10:05:12AM *  1 point [-]

Then that would refer to the "extrapolation" step (falling out of decision theory, as opposed to something CEV-esque), and assume that the results of an "extraction" step are already available, right? Does (did) Drescher hold this view?

Comment author: lukeprog 25 January 2012 02:03:32PM 0 points [-]

From what I meant, it needn't assume that the results of an extraction step are already available, and I don't recall Drescher talking in so much detail about it. He just treats humans as utility material, however that might work.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 25 January 2012 05:37:17PM *  0 points [-]

OK, thanks! That would agree with my plan then.

(In general, it's not clear in what ways descriptive "utility" can be more useful than original humans, or what it means as "utility", unless it's already normative preference, in which case it can't be "extrapolated" any further. "Extrapolation" makes more sense as a way of constructing normative preference from something more like an algorithm that specifies behavior, which seems to be CEV's purpose, and could then be seen as a particular method of extraction-without-need-for-extrapolation.)