palladias comments on Expected utility and utility after time - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Metus 29 August 2012 01:10PM

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Comment author: palladias 29 August 2012 02:11:58PM 2 points [-]

And, for a non-hypothetical example of the remembering self/experiencing self tradeoff, in Thinking Fast and Slow the example is colonoscopy methodology. We tend to remember pain in a peak-end way (the worst moment and the final moments), so if you prolong the colonoscopy's least bad point right at the end (by leaving the scope just within the body for a little while unessential) we remember it as less awful than if you ended the procedure promptly. But the experiencing self goes through an extra period of low-grade discomfort.