Less Wrong is a community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality. Please visit our About page for more information.

Tetronian comments on Boobies and the lottery - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: araneae 09 October 2010 06:18PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (16)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Tetronian 09 October 2010 08:56:09PM *  1 point [-]

I found that phrase to be a bit contradictory--if you don't want something, why go for it? I suspect the answer is that the original poster assigns utility to winning a lottery regardless of the utility of the prize.

Comment author: Relsqui 09 October 2010 11:01:31PM 0 points [-]

That's certainly the implication--and the point relies on the reader sharing that utility, which I don't believe I do.

Comment author: Tetronian 10 October 2010 02:19:00AM 0 points [-]

...which is why I wasn't too impressed. What would make it more interesting is if the original poster made the normative claim that we should do so. That would generate a more intriguing debate.