Interesting exercise. After trying for a while I completely failed; I ended up with terms that are completely vague (e.g. “comfort”), and actually didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of a real (hypothesized) utility function. If it exists it is either extremely complicated (too complicated to write down perhaps) or needs “scientific” breakthroughs to uncover its simple form.
The result was also laughably self-serving, more like “here’s roughly what I’d like the result to be” than an accurate depiction of what I do.
The real heresy is that this result does not particularly frighten or upset me. I probably can’t be a “rationalist” when my utility function doesn’t place much weight on understanding my utility function.
Can you write your own utility fuinction or adopt the one you think you should have? Is that sort of wholesale tampering wise?
Interesting exercise. After trying for a while I completely failed; I ended up with terms that are completely vague (e.g. “comfort”), and actually didn’t even begin to scratch the surface of a real (hypothesized) utility function. If it exists it is either extremely complicated (too complicated to write down perhaps) or needs “scientific” breakthroughs to uncover its simple form.
The result was also laughably self-serving, more like “here’s roughly what I’d like the result to be” than an accurate depiction of what I do.
The real heresy is that this result does not particularly frighten or upset me. I probably can’t be a “rationalist” when my utility function doesn’t place much weight on understanding my utility function.
Can you write your own utility fuinction or adopt the one you think you should have? Is that sort of wholesale tampering wise?