patrickscottshields comments on The limited predictor problem - Less Wrong

10 Post author: cousin_it 21 March 2012 12:15AM

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Comment author: patrickscottshields 21 March 2012 02:59:30AM *  0 points [-]

In section 2, you say:

Unfortunately you can't solve most LPPs this way [...]

By solving most LPPs, do you mean writing a general-purpose agent program that correctly maximizes its utility function under most LPPs? I tried to write a program to see if I could show a counterexample, but got stuck when it came to defining what exactly a solution would consist of.

Does the agent get to know N? Can we place a lower bound on N to allow the agent to time to parse the problem and become aware of its actions? Otherwise, wouldn't low N values force failure for any non-trivial agent?

Comment author: cousin_it 21 March 2012 07:13:08AM *  1 point [-]

Can we place a lower bound on N to allow the agent to time to parse the problem and become aware of its actions?

Yes, of course that's allowed. I started out thinking that I could write a program that solved LPP for all N above a certain bound, and then found the obstacle described in section 2.