orthonormal comments on Post Your Utility Function - Less Wrong

28 Post author: taw 04 June 2009 05:05AM

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Comment author: orthonormal 10 June 2009 07:18:34PM 1 point [-]

Yes, but your decision to install it (as well as your decision to arm it) comes from your map. You would not install it if you thought you had virtually no chance of being burglarized, or if you thought that it would have a false alarm every five minutes when the train went past.

We can make choices that cause other (human, mechanical, etc) agents to act in particular ways, as one of the manners in which we affect possible futures. But these sorts of choices are evaluated by us in the same way as others.

I fear we've resorted to arguing about the semantics of "map" versus "territory", as I don't see a scenario where we'd predict or decide differently from each other on account of this disagreement. As such, I'm willing to drop it for now unless you see such a scenario.

(My disagreement with Mr. Eby, on the other hand, appears to be more substantive.)

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 10 June 2009 07:25:46PM -1 points [-]

(My disagreement with Mr. Eby, on the other hand, appears to be more substantive.)

It appears to lead nowhere: your comments are clear, while his are all smoke and mirrors, in many many words.