Didn’t check my math assumptions, yes. In fact hyperbolic discounting agrees with my intuition, while exponential doesn’t. I’m not sure if this demonstrates that exponential discounting is irrational (at least in sufficiently contrived scenarios!) or that I’m just a hyperbolic discounter at heart.
Well, according to experiments we all are, right? So maybe you could turn this around and say that the reason humans don’t like Faustian bargains is that we discount hyperbolically—and that a hypothetical race of Vulcans whose utility function is exponential would find the bargain intuitively appealing.
Didn’t check my math assumptions, yes. In fact hyperbolic discounting agrees with my intuition, while exponential doesn’t. I’m not sure if this demonstrates that exponential discounting is irrational (at least in sufficiently contrived scenarios!) or that I’m just a hyperbolic discounter at heart.
Well, according to experiments we all are, right? So maybe you could turn this around and say that the reason humans don’t like Faustian bargains is that we discount hyperbolically—and that a hypothetical race of Vulcans whose utility function is exponential would find the bargain intuitively appealing.