steven0461 comments on Two-Tier Rationalism - Less Wrong
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IMO people grossly underrate the degree to which constantly doing explicit expected utility calculations can help achieve most goals. As a very primitive example, no good chess player would do without assigning point values to pieces. There is room here for a sort of "Benthamite conspiracy" which, like the anti-akrasiac conspiracy but in a different way, aimed toward instrumental rationality. Things like alienation are an issue, but everything is alienating if nobody else does it.
ETA: I may try writing a "techniques of the Benthamite Conspiracy" post. Though actually "Neumann/Morgenstern Conspiracy" would be a better name.
I have attempted explicit EU calculations in the past, and have had to make very troubling assumptions and unit approximations, which has limited my further experimentation.
I would be very interested in seeing concrete examples and calculation rules in plausible situations.
Please do.