timtyler comments on Value is Fragile - Less Wrong

41 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 January 2009 08:46AM

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Comment author: Tim_Tyler 30 January 2009 10:22:13PM -1 points [-]

Another way of saying this is that human beings are not expected utility maximizers, not as individuals and certainly not as societies.

They are not perfect expected utility maximizers. However, no expected utility maximizer is perfect. Humans approach the ideal at least as well as other organisms. Fitness maximization is the central explanatory principle in biology - and the underlying idea is the same. The economic framework associated with utilitarianism is general, of broad applicability, and deserves considerable respect.