On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 12:47:19PM -0700, meekerdb wrote: > On 7/31/2012 11:10 AM, R AM wrote: > >>On 7/30/2012 7:05 PM, Russell Standish wrote: > >>>With complete information, a totally rational being makes optimal > >>>choices, and has no free will, but always beats an irrational being. > >>> > >>>Conversely, with incomplete information, a rational being will make a > >>>wrong choice, or simply fail to make a choice at all, and so is > >>>usually beaten by an irrational being. > >With incomplete information, a rational being will make the best > >choice under the available information and would beat an irrational > >being most of the time. > > > > Right. I don't think 'complete information' is even a well defined > concept. It's only a good approximation in games like chess, but in
Right - the concept of rationality is usually only applied in the context of well defined games (eg such as chess), and the agent is assumed to have access to all pertinant information, as well as infinite amounts of processing power. Limiting either of these brings in the concept of bounded rationality. > life all decisions are made on incomplete information with finite > future horizons and uncertainty about the value of different > outcomes. > Yes - and rationality often does not help much. In such situations, it is often better to make a fast decision than a good one. Only irrational agents can make fast decisions. >From the responses I've received on this list, I don't think people are using the term rational in the same way it is used in economics. Flipping a coin is never rational, although it may well be the best thing to do. > Brent > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en. > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics hpco...@hpcoders.com.au University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
