You keep repeating that, but it remains unconvincing. What I need is a specific example of a situation where my procedure would generate outcomes that we could all agree are bad.
flip a coin. Heads yes, tails no. Does it “work”? Sure.
Let’s use this for an example of what kind of argument I’m waiting for from you. Suppose you (and your group) run into lions every day. You have to compare your preferences for “run away” and “get eaten”. A coin flip is eventually going to select option 2. Everyone in your group ends up dead, even though every single one of them individually preferred to live. Every outside observer would agree that they don’t want to use this sort of decision procedure for their own group. Therefore I propose that the procedure “doesn’t work” or is “bad”.
Fewer comparisons?! What good is that?? How much fewer? Is it still an infinite number? (yes)
Technically there is an infinite number of comparisons left, and also an infinite number of comparisons saved. I believe that in a practical setting this difference is not insignificant, but I don’t see an easy way to exhibit that. In part that’s because I suspect that you already save those comparisons in your practical reasoning, despite denying the axioms which permit it.
your claim has been completely trivial all along
Yes, it has, so your resistance to it did seem pretty weird to me. I personally believe that my other claims are quite trivial as well, but it’s really hard to tell misunderstandings from true disagreement. What I want to do, is figure out whether this particular misunderstanding came from my failure at writing or from your failure at reading.
For starters, after reading my first post, did you think, that I think, that the utility function poofed into existence with U(“eat pancakes”)=3.91 already set by itself, after performing zero comparisons? This isn’t a charitable interpretation, but I can understand it. How did you interpret my two attempts to clarify my point in the further comments?
I’d love to continue this discussion, but I’m afraid that the moderation policy on this site does not permit me to do so effectively, as you see. I’d be happy to take this to another forum (email, IRC, the comments section of my blog—whatever you prefer). If you’re interested, feel free to email me at myfirstname@myfullname.net (you could also PM me via LW’s PM system, but last time I tried using it, I couldn’t figure out how to make it work, so caveat emptor). If not, that’s fine too; in that case, I’ll have to bow out of the discussion.
You keep repeating that, but it remains unconvincing. What I need is a specific example of a situation where my procedure would generate outcomes that we could all agree are bad.
Let’s use this for an example of what kind of argument I’m waiting for from you. Suppose you (and your group) run into lions every day. You have to compare your preferences for “run away” and “get eaten”. A coin flip is eventually going to select option 2. Everyone in your group ends up dead, even though every single one of them individually preferred to live. Every outside observer would agree that they don’t want to use this sort of decision procedure for their own group. Therefore I propose that the procedure “doesn’t work” or is “bad”.
Technically there is an infinite number of comparisons left, and also an infinite number of comparisons saved. I believe that in a practical setting this difference is not insignificant, but I don’t see an easy way to exhibit that. In part that’s because I suspect that you already save those comparisons in your practical reasoning, despite denying the axioms which permit it.
Yes, it has, so your resistance to it did seem pretty weird to me. I personally believe that my other claims are quite trivial as well, but it’s really hard to tell misunderstandings from true disagreement. What I want to do, is figure out whether this particular misunderstanding came from my failure at writing or from your failure at reading.
For starters, after reading my first post, did you think, that I think, that the utility function poofed into existence with U(“eat pancakes”)=3.91 already set by itself, after performing zero comparisons? This isn’t a charitable interpretation, but I can understand it. How did you interpret my two attempts to clarify my point in the further comments?
Hi zulupineapple,
I’d love to continue this discussion, but I’m afraid that the moderation policy on this site does not permit me to do so effectively, as you see. I’d be happy to take this to another forum (email, IRC, the comments section of my blog—whatever you prefer). If you’re interested, feel free to email me at myfirstname@myfullname.net (you could also PM me via LW’s PM system, but last time I tried using it, I couldn’t figure out how to make it work, so caveat emptor). If not, that’s fine too; in that case, I’ll have to bow out of the discussion.