On 1/20/2014 2:28 PM, Russell Standish wrote:
On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 10:50:06PM +1300, LizR wrote:
On 20 January 2014 22:39, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote:
The point about acting randomly is that clearly you are not optimising
your utility. You a choosing something other than the optimum action,
so are behaving irrationally by definition. Yet, it could be a
beneficial strategy to do so, for all the reasons raised (fooling your
opponents, making a timely decision, and so on).
Sorry to be dense, but I still don't see this. When I say "acting
randomly", I assume we don't mean just doing anything, deciding to go
swimming in the arctic or declaring yourself to be Napoleon, I assume we
mean picking one of a number of options that appear to have equal utility.
Let's say we're playing scissors-paper-rock. The best strategy - the one
that gives you the best chance of winning at least half the time - is to
choose randomly. Anyone who doesn't choose randomly is open to having their
moves predicted, and losing more often than they otherwise would. So in
this case acting randomly is rational... isn't it?
A rational player is at extreme disadvantage in the game of
scissors-paper-rock, as they will be unable to choose the optimal
action. Think what Spock would do - most likely he'd give up in disgust
after a few milliseconds. The other fictional character I can think of
is the computer in "War Games" "A curious game. The only winning
strategy is not to play."
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHWjlCaIrQo).
Of course one can augment a rational agent with a random choice in the
event of tied choices. I don't think that is usally done in the
literature, though. But in the case of choosing between a choice that
optimises the utility
That's "optimises *expected* utility" which requires probability estimates for what others
(the environment) might do, including exploit their knowledge of you.
Brent
and one that doesn't, a rational agent _must_
choose the optimal one - even if strategically this can lead to
exploitation by competitors.
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