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Giles comments on The Doubling Box - Less Wrong Discussion

13 Post author: Mestroyer 06 August 2012 05:50AM

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Comment author: Giles 07 August 2012 04:39:54PM *  1 point [-]

That way your expected utility becomes INFINITY TIMES TWO! :)

Comment author: Kindly 08 August 2012 12:41:48PM 1 point [-]

There are meaningful ways to compare two outcomes which both have infinite expected utility. For example, suppose X is your favorite infinite-expected-utility outcome. Then a 20% chance of X (and 80% chance of nothing) is better than a 10% chance of X. Something similar happens with tossing two coins instead of one, although it's more subtle.

Comment author: aaronde 08 August 2012 03:34:37AM 1 point [-]

Actually what you get is another divergent infinite series that grows faster. They both grow arbitrarily large, but the one with p=0.25 grows arbitrarily larger than the series with p=0.5, as you compute more terms. So there is no sense in which the second series is twice as big, although there is a sense in which it is infinitely larger. (I know your point is that they're both technically the same size, but I think this is worth noting.)