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FormallyknownasRoko comments on $100 for the best article on efficient charity -- deadline Wednesday 1st December - Less Wrong Discussion

13 Post author: FormallyknownasRoko 24 November 2010 10:31PM

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Comment author: FormallyknownasRoko 27 November 2010 10:44:24AM *  3 points [-]

Only if the relevant utility function is sublinear. If the relevant utility function is linear or superlinear, you aren't risk averse, so you don't care about a single point of failure. You care about p(failure)x0 + p(success)xU(success).

E.g. assuming altruism is all you care about, if you could pay $10,000 for a bet which would cure all the problems in Africa with probability 0.01%, and do nothing with probability 99.99%, then you should take that bet.

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