RichardKennaway comments on The Number Choosing Game: Against the existence of perfect theoretical rationality - Less Wrong Discussion
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Note that I am not the person making the argument, just clarifying what is meant by "utility", which in its use around here specifically means that which is constructed by the VNM theorem. I am not a particular fan of applying the concept to universal decision-making.
Are you arguing that all things end, therefore there is no value in anything?
Well, there is precedent:
reviews VNM Theorem
Noted, and thanks for the update. :)
My argument was not meant to imply nihilism, though that is an interesting point. (Aside: Where is the quote from?) Rather, I meant to imply the hidden costs (e.g. time for calculation or input) making the exercise meaningless. As has been argued by several people now, having the Agent be able to state arbitrarily large or accurate numbers, or able to wait an arbitrarily large amount of time without losing any utility is... let's say problematic. As much so as the likelyhood of the Game Master being able to actually hand out utility based on an arbitrarily large/accurate number.
The quotation is from the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes, traditionally (but probably wrongly) ascribed to the allegedly very wise King Solomon.