casebash comments on The Number Choosing Game: Against the existence of perfect theoretical rationality - Less Wrong

-1 Post author: casebash 29 January 2016 01:04AM

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Comment author: casebash 05 January 2016 12:53:38PM 1 point [-]

Spoilers, haha.

I was actually reading this post and I was trying to find a solution to the coalition problem where Eliezer wonders how rational agents can solve a problem with the potential for an infinite loop, which lead me to what I'll call the Waiting Game, where you can wait n units of time and gain n utility for any finite n, which then led me to this post.

Comment author: Decius 06 January 2016 12:41:38AM *  1 point [-]

Suppose instead that the game is "gain n utility". No need to speak the number, wait n turns, or even to wait for a meat brain to make a decision or comprehend the number.

I posit that a perfectly rational, disembodied agent would decide to select an n such that there exists no n higher. If there is a possible outcome that such an agent prefers over all other possible outcomes, then by the definition of utility such an n exists.

Comment author: casebash 06 January 2016 12:46:19AM 0 points [-]

Not quite. There is no reason inherent in the definition that utility has to be bounded.