RichardKennaway 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: RichardKennaway 05 August 2012 11:39:25AM *  1 point [-]

A question, probably silly: Suppose you calculate what a person would do given every possible configuration of sensory inputs, and then construct a utility function that returns one if that thing is done and zero otherwise. Can't we then say that any deterministic action-taking thing acts according to some utility function?

No, although this idea pops up often enough that I have given it a name: the Texas Sharpshooter Utility Function.

There are two things glaringly wrong with it. Firstly, it is not a utility function in the sense of VNM (proof left as an exercise). Secondly, it does not describe how anything works -- it is purely post hoc (hence the name).