Thank you very much for writing this up. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if akrasia has a neurological basis, and I’m a little surprised that I haven’t seen any posts really looking at it from that angle. Dopamine?
And on the other hand, your story is also about ideas and circumstances that undercut motivation.
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.
—William Blake
I haven’t read up on the akrasia discussions. I don’t believe into intelligence. I believe in efficiency regarding goals stated in advance. It’s all about what we want and how to achieve it. And what we want is merely ‘the line of least resistance’.
Whatever intelligence is, it can’t be intelligent all the way down. It’s just dumb stuff at the bottom.
—Andy Clark
The universe really just exists. And it appears to us that it is unfolding because we are part of it. We appear to each other to be free and intelligent because we believe that we are not part of it.
There is a lot of talk here on LW on how to become less wrong. That works. Though it is not a proactive approach but simply trial and error allowed for by the mostly large error tolerance of our existence.
It’s all about practicability, what works. If prayer worked, we’d use it if we wanted to use it.
Narns, Humans, Centauri… we all do what we do for the same reason: because it seems like a good idea at the time.
—G’Kar, Babylon 5
Anything you learn on lesswrong.com you’ll have to apply by relying on fundamental non-intelligent processes. You can only hope to be lucky to learn enough in-time to avoid fatal failure. Since no possible system can use advanced heuristics to tackle, or even evaluate, every stimulus. For example, at what point are you going to use Bayesian statistics? You won’t even be able to evaluate the importance of all data to be able to judge when to apply more rigorous tools. You can only be a passive observer who’s waiting for new data by experience. And until new data arrives, rely on prior knowledge.
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.
—Arthur Schopenhauer
Thus I don’t think that a weakness of will does exist. I also don’t think that you can do anything but your best. What is the right thing to do does always rely on what you want. Never you do something that you do not want. Only in retrospect or on average might we want something else. On that basis we then do conclude that what we have done was wrong and that we knew better. But what really was different at that time was that what we wanted, which changed the truth value of what we, contemplating at present, in retrospect know to be the best to do.
So what is it that can help us dealing with akrasia? Nothing. In future we might be able to strengthen our goals, so that what we want at the time of applying the amplification of our goals is what we’re going to want forever. Or as long as something even stronger shifts our desires again.
If we could deliberately seize control of our pleasure systems, we could reproduce the pleasure of success. That be the end of everything.
—Marvin Minsky
I’m happy with how it is right now. I’m very happy that there is what we call akrasia. If there wasn’t, I’d still be religious.
Thank you very much for writing this up. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if akrasia has a neurological basis, and I’m a little surprised that I haven’t seen any posts really looking at it from that angle. Dopamine?
And on the other hand, your story is also about ideas and circumstances that undercut motivation.
Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained. —William Blake
I haven’t read up on the akrasia discussions. I don’t believe into intelligence. I believe in efficiency regarding goals stated in advance. It’s all about what we want and how to achieve it. And what we want is merely ‘the line of least resistance’.
Whatever intelligence is, it can’t be intelligent all the way down. It’s just dumb stuff at the bottom. —Andy Clark
The universe really just exists. And it appears to us that it is unfolding because we are part of it. We appear to each other to be free and intelligent because we believe that we are not part of it.
There is a lot of talk here on LW on how to become less wrong. That works. Though it is not a proactive approach but simply trial and error allowed for by the mostly large error tolerance of our existence.
It’s all about practicability, what works. If prayer worked, we’d use it if we wanted to use it.
Narns, Humans, Centauri… we all do what we do for the same reason: because it seems like a good idea at the time. —G’Kar, Babylon 5
Anything you learn on lesswrong.com you’ll have to apply by relying on fundamental non-intelligent processes. You can only hope to be lucky to learn enough in-time to avoid fatal failure. Since no possible system can use advanced heuristics to tackle, or even evaluate, every stimulus. For example, at what point are you going to use Bayesian statistics? You won’t even be able to evaluate the importance of all data to be able to judge when to apply more rigorous tools. You can only be a passive observer who’s waiting for new data by experience. And until new data arrives, rely on prior knowledge.
A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants. —Arthur Schopenhauer
Thus I don’t think that a weakness of will does exist. I also don’t think that you can do anything but your best. What is the right thing to do does always rely on what you want. Never you do something that you do not want. Only in retrospect or on average might we want something else. On that basis we then do conclude that what we have done was wrong and that we knew better. But what really was different at that time was that what we wanted, which changed the truth value of what we, contemplating at present, in retrospect know to be the best to do.
So what is it that can help us dealing with akrasia? Nothing. In future we might be able to strengthen our goals, so that what we want at the time of applying the amplification of our goals is what we’re going to want forever. Or as long as something even stronger shifts our desires again.
If we could deliberately seize control of our pleasure systems, we could reproduce the pleasure of success. That be the end of everything. —Marvin Minsky
I’m happy with how it is right now. I’m very happy that there is what we call akrasia. If there wasn’t, I’d still be religious.