On 20 January 2014 16:09, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 01:40:45PM +1300, LizR wrote: > > One problem, surely, in real life is not knowing what the other person's > > "utility function" is? So someone may behave apparently irrationally - > e.g. > > giving away money - because their utility function involves making > > themselves feel good, or getting a reward in heaven, or they want to show > > off how generous they are to impress someone, or something else we don't > > know. So in practice it isn't even theoretically possible to know if > > someone else is behaving rationally a lot of the time. > > > > Personally, I think anyone without brain damage or mental illness will > > normally behave rationally according to their own lights. We call it > > cognitive dissonance when someone is unable to justify their beliefs or > > actions - they have found some contradiction within themselves - but they > > usually quickly act to reduce this, by changing their beliefs or doing > > something different. And it doesn't seem to happen very often, as far as > I > > know, so it seems to me that most people are acting rationally according > to > > their own utility functions most of the time. > > Fair enough, but someone behaving deterministically can be modelled > quite effectively given sufficient study. > OK. > > > > > By the way, I don't see how a random decision can be considered > "irrational > > by definition". To say something is rational surely means there is a > reason > > for doing it which "attempts to maximise the person's utility > > function" > > That's not the definition. A rational agent is someone who always > chooses the optimal course of action, not that there might be a reason > for it. > My point was just that the optimal course of action might be to behave randomly (or unpredictably, if that isn't an option). Also, "having a reason for an action which optimises your personal utility function" sounds to me more or less like "choosing the optimal course of action". I admit I was a bit wordy, but basically it seems to be at least similar. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
