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TheOtherDave comments on Irrational hardware vs. rational software - Less Wrong Discussion

-10 Post author: tygorton 22 May 2012 06:52AM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 22 May 2012 04:28:31PM *  0 points [-]

Hm.

Suppose I value risk, and I value longevity, and I live in a world such that high-risk environments are always low-longevity and high-longevity environments are always low-risk.

I want to say something disparaging about that arrangement, but I'm not sure what it means to call it either "stupid" or "irrational".

Certainly, it doesn't follow from the fact that I have those values that I'm stupid.

It is certainly true that my behavior will predictably be less effective at optimizing my environment for my values in that case than it would be otherwise, but the same could be said for valuing happiness over paperclips.

(shrug) I think the word I want here is "inelegant."