benelliott comments on Against Discount Rates - Less Wrong

23 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 21 January 2008 10:00AM

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Comment author: timtyler 16 March 2011 08:11:02PM 1 point [-]

I don't think the human brain's equivalent to a utility function is unbounded. Dopamine levels and endorphin levels are limited - and it seems tremendously unlikely that the brain deals with infinities in its usual mode of operation. So, this is all very hypothetical.

Comment author: benelliott 16 March 2011 09:59:36PM 0 points [-]

it seems tremendously unlikely that the brain deals with infinities in its usual mode of operation.

Unbounded is not the same as infinite. The integers are unbounded but no integer is infinite. In the same way I can have a utility function with no upper bound on the values it outputs without it ever having to output infinity.

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Comment author: JGWeissman 16 March 2011 10:19:06PM 2 points [-]

The Peano axioms are finite. The numbers they describe are unbounded. Finite human brains understand this.

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Comment author: JGWeissman 16 March 2011 10:29:15PM 0 points [-]

It shows that your conclusions from human brains being finite don't follow.

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Comment author: benelliott 16 March 2011 10:24:12PM * 0 points [-]

My 1,300 cm3 is capable of understanding the function f(x) = 3x, which is unbounded, therefore finite physical size does not prevent the brain from dealing with unbounded functions.

In general, a finite machine can easily deal with unbounded numbers simply by taking unbounded amounts of time to do so. This is not as much of a problem as it may sound, since there will intevitably be an upper bound to the utilities involved in all dilemma's I actually encounter (unless my lifespan is infinite) but not the utilities I could, in theory, compute.

Comment author: timtyler 16 March 2011 10:46:29PM * -2 points [-]

This is an augmented human, with a strap-on memory source bigger than the size of the planet? I thought we were probably talking about an ordinary human being - not some abstract sci-fi human that will never actually exist.

Comment author: benelliott 16 March 2011 11:07:30PM 0 points [-]

Who said anything about an augmented human, my comment was written in the first person except for one sentence, and I certainly don't have a strap-on memory source bigger than a planet, but despite this I'm still pretty confident that I have an unbounded utility function.

benelliott comments on Against Discount Rates - Less Wrong

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