Mark_Neznansky comments on Epistemic vs. Instrumental Rationality: Approximations - Less Wrong

22 Post author: Peter_de_Blanc 28 April 2009 03:12AM

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Comment author: Mark_Neznansky 28 April 2009 02:47:27PM 0 points [-]

It seems to me you use wrong wording. In contrary to the epistemic rationalist, the instrumental rationalist does not "gain" any "utility" from changing his beliefs. He is gaining utility from changing his action. Since he can either prepare or not prepare for a meteoritic catastrophe and not "half prepare", I think the numbers you should choose are 0 and 1 and not 0 and 0.5. I'm not entirely sure what different numbers it will yield, but I think it's worth mentioning.

Comment author: Mulciber 28 April 2009 08:29:27PM 0 points [-]

Why does it sound more like 1 than .5? If I believed the probability of my home getting struck by a meteorite was as high as .5, I would definitely make preparations.