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nyan_sandwich comments on We Don't Have a Utility Function - Less Wrong
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No, I don't think it's just descriptive vs prescriptive, I mentioned both in my post and asserted that we had neither. Phil is saying that we do have a decision algorithm (I agree), and further, that "utility function" means "decision algorithm" (which I disagree with, but I'm not one to argue terminology.
Economists frequently assume humans have utility functions as part of their spherical cow model of human behavior. Unfortunately, they sometimes forget that this is just a spherical cow model, especially once one gets away from modeling collective economic behavior.