It has an equivalent to wireheading—namely hyperinflation.
This is a difference to utility. Not a similarity. Wireheading gives low utility (for most plausible utility functions) but huge measures for other things that are not utility, like ‘happiness’. It is the reason it would be utterly absurd to say “The federal government can print arbitrarily large amounts of utility”.
And we have maximisers of share value—namely companies.
You can approximate (or legislate) companies that way and. It wouldn’t be quite as inaccurate as saying “we have homo economicus” but it’d be a similar error.
So:
The statements following “So” do not follow from the statements preceding it. The preceding statements are respectively negatively relevant and irrelevant. So “So” does not fit between them.
money is a kind of utility—though obviously not the utility of people.
There is a relationship between money and utility. It is not an “is a kind of” relationship. (If Nyan takes a crack at explaining what the actual relationship is between fungible resources and utility it will most likely be worth reading.)
So: I was using “utility” there to mean “representation of utility”. In fact I did previously say that money was a “representation of utility”.
This is a case where there are only really representations. Utility is defined by its representations (in its “that which is maximised” sense). Without a representation, utility doesn’t really exist.
To be more sepcific about about hyperinflation, that is a form of utility counterfeitting. It’s on the “wireheading” side, rather than the “pornography” side. This isn’t really an analogy, but an instance of another phenomenon in the same class. Hyperinflation produces poor outcomes for countries, just as wireheading produces poor outcomes for those that choose it. This is a similarity—not a difference. I am not sure why you don’t recognise the relationship here. Are you sure you that have thought the issue through?
This is a difference to utility. Not a similarity. Wireheading gives low utility (for most plausible utility functions) but huge measures for other things that are not utility, like ‘happiness’. It is the reason it would be utterly absurd to say “The federal government can print arbitrarily large amounts of utility”.
You can approximate (or legislate) companies that way and. It wouldn’t be quite as inaccurate as saying “we have homo economicus” but it’d be a similar error.
The statements following “So” do not follow from the statements preceding it. The preceding statements are respectively negatively relevant and irrelevant. So “So” does not fit between them.
There is a relationship between money and utility. It is not an “is a kind of” relationship. (If Nyan takes a crack at explaining what the actual relationship is between fungible resources and utility it will most likely be worth reading.)
Thanks for the encouragement! I do plan to do that soon, but I am hardly an agent that can be described as following through on “plans”.
So: I was using “utility” there to mean “representation of utility”. In fact I did previously say that money was a “representation of utility”.
This is a case where there are only really representations. Utility is defined by its representations (in its “that which is maximised” sense). Without a representation, utility doesn’t really exist.
To be more sepcific about about hyperinflation, that is a form of utility counterfeitting. It’s on the “wireheading” side, rather than the “pornography” side. This isn’t really an analogy, but an instance of another phenomenon in the same class. Hyperinflation produces poor outcomes for countries, just as wireheading produces poor outcomes for those that choose it. This is a similarity—not a difference. I am not sure why you don’t recognise the relationship here. Are you sure you that have thought the issue through?