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philh comments on Open thread, Mar. 2 - Mar. 8, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: MrMind 02 March 2015 08:19AM

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Comment author: philh 02 March 2015 11:15:43AM 6 points [-]

That is, if you look at the space of all possible outcomes, and select the point where exactly 50% of them are better, and exactly 50% are worse. Choose actions so that this median future is the best.

This seems vulnerable to the following bet: I roll a d6. If I roll 3+, I give you a dollar. Otherwise I shoot you.

Comment author: Houshalter 02 March 2015 11:32:51AM *  2 points [-]

I mention that vulnerability further down. Obviously it doesn't fit human decision making either, but I think it's qualitatively closer.

An example of an algorithm that's closer to the desired behavior would be to sample n counterfactuals from your probability distribution. Then take the average of these n outcomes, and take the median of this entire setup. E.g. so 50% of the time the average of the n outcomes is higher, and 50% of the time it's lower.

As n approaches infinity it becomes equivalent to expected utility, and as it approaches 1 it becomes median expected utility. A reasonable value is probably a few hundred. So that you select outcomes where you come out ahead the vast majority of the time, but still take low probability risks or ignore low probability rewards.