On 21 January 2014 06:41, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 1/20/2014 1:09 AM, LizR wrote: > > On 20 January 2014 19:43, Russell Standish <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 10:13:22PM -0800, meekerdb wrote: >> > On 1/19/2014 7:09 PM, Russell Standish wrote: >> > >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. >> > >> > Isn't "being optimal" a reason? >> >> Yes - a specific reason, not any old reason. >> >> Obviously I wasn't meaning just "any old reason" ! > > (I said the reason was to optimise the utility function... I realise > there are caveats like not knowing how to, not having time, etc) > > > But Russell seems to think that "specific reason" means some "objective", > i.e. publicly determinable reason. In general one's utility function is > private, subjective and not known to others or maybe even to yourself. > > If that's what he thinks, he's wrong. Utility functions are by their nature private. It generally takes quite a while to get to know someone well enough to find out "what makes them tick" - and it varies tremendously from one person to another. Indeed, some people don't even know what their *own* utility function is (well obviously there are broad things like the survival instinct, hunger etc that most people subscribe to, although even then...) Hence the occasional "conversion experience" and suchlike.
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