ChaosMote comments on The paperclip maximiser's perspective - Less Wrong

28 Post author: Angela 01 May 2015 12:24AM

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Comment author: ChaosMote 01 May 2015 03:59:57AM 2 points [-]

Not necessarily. You are assuming that she has an explicit utility function, but that need not be the case.

Comment author: Lukas_Gloor 01 May 2015 09:32:31AM *  0 points [-]

Good point. May I ask, is "explicit utility function" standard terminology, and if yes, is there a good reference to it somewhere that explains it? It took me a long time until I realized the interesting difference between humans, who engage in moral philosophy and often can't tell you what their goals are, and my model of paperclippers. I also think that not understanding this difference is a big reason why people don't understand the orthagonality thesis.

Comment author: ChaosMote 01 May 2015 08:43:27PM 1 point [-]

No, I do not believe that it is standard terminology, though you can find a decent reference here.

Comment author: [deleted] 02 May 2015 03:56:52PM 0 points [-]

They're often called explicit goals not utility functions. Utility function is a terminology from a very specific moral philosophy.

Also note that the orthogonality thesis depends on an explicit goal structure. Without such an architecture it should be called the orthogonality hypothesis.