Tim_Tyler comments on On Not Having an Advance Abyssal Plan - Less Wrong

21 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 23 February 2009 08:20PM

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Comment author: Tim_Tyler 25 February 2009 11:19:44AM 1 point [-]

But what good reason is there not to? How can you be worse off from knowing in advance what you'll do in the worse cases?

The answer seems trivial: you may have wasted a bunch of time and energy performing calculations relating to what to do in a hypothetical situation that you might never face.

If the calculations can be performed later, then that will often be better - since then more information will be available - and possibly the calculations may not have to be performed at all.

Calculating in advance can be good - if you fear that you may not have time to calculate later - or (obviously) if the calculations affect the choices to be taken now. However, the act of performing calculations has associated time and energy costs - so it is best to use your "calculating" time wisely.