RichardKennaway comments on Pascal's Mugging for bounded utility functions - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Benja 06 December 2012 10:28PM

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Comment author: RichardKennaway 22 February 2013 09:01:40AM *  0 points [-]

Consider a probabilistic model over the world which is a light-tailed probability distribution w.r.t. any physical quantity. Light-tailed means that p(X) decreases at least exponentially with X.

We do not know what physical quantities exist, and Solomonoff induction requires us to consider all computable possibilities compatible with observations so far. Any distribution p so light-tailed as to go to zero faster than every computable function must itself be uncomputable, and therefore inaccessible to Solomonoff induction. Likewise universally sub-exponentially growing utility functions.

Comment author: V_V 22 February 2013 09:35:09PM 0 points [-]

We do not know what physical quantities exist, and Solomonoff induction requires us to consider all computable possibilities compatible with observations so far.

Yes.

Any distribution p so light-tailed as to go to zero faster than every computable function must itself be uncomputable, and therefore inaccessible to Solomonoff induction.

It doesn't have to decrease faster than every computable function, only to decrease at least as fast as an exponential function with negative exponent.

Likewise universally sub-exponentially growing utility functions.

Solomonoff induction doesn't try to learn your utility function.
Clearly, if your utility function is super-exponential, then p(X) * U(X) may diverge even if p(X) is light-tailed.