What is Utility Function? I guess it can be expressed in terms of reward for achieving your instrumental and terminal values. What is a terminal value? Something you don’t get instrumental utility from, as in money, but value in and of itself. Such as fun. Everybody’s instrumental value is survival; how do we make humans having fun a terminal value of a mind? We’d need to reward their instrumental values for sharing this terminal value with us; that is, make it easier to survive if they somehow learn to appreciate fun. How do you express fun, in terms of a utility function, instrumental values and survival? How about empathy? If you can persuade someone you understand and care for them, it’s easier to cooperate. If you have fun when they are happy you gain both in your terminal values, and in instrumental, because it makes trust easier, and distrust leads to lost opportunities for cooperation.
What is Utility Function? I guess it can be expressed in terms of reward for achieving your instrumental and terminal values. What is a terminal value? Something you don’t get instrumental utility from, as in money, but value in and of itself. Such as fun. Everybody’s instrumental value is survival; how do we make humans having fun a terminal value of a mind? We’d need to reward their instrumental values for sharing this terminal value with us; that is, make it easier to survive if they somehow learn to appreciate fun. How do you express fun, in terms of a utility function, instrumental values and survival? How about empathy? If you can persuade someone you understand and care for them, it’s easier to cooperate. If you have fun when they are happy you gain both in your terminal values, and in instrumental, because it makes trust easier, and distrust leads to lost opportunities for cooperation.
Should I write a longer post about this?