Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Wheat Loaf
Feb 13, 2012

by FactsAreUseless

Lottery of Babylon posted:

Anyone who actually studies game theory or decision theory or ethical philosophy or any related field will almost immediately come across the concept of the "minimax" (or "maximin") rule, which says you should minimize your maximum loss, improve the worst-case scenario, and/or make the most disadvantaged members of society as advantaged as possible, depending on how it is framed. And Yudkowsky fancies himself quite learned in such topics, to the point of inventing his own "Timeless Decision Theory" to correct what he perceives as flaws in other decision theories. But since he's "self-taught" (read: a dropout) and has minimal contact with people doing serious work in such fields (read: has never produced anything of value to anyone), he's never encountered even basic ideas like the minimax.

Somebody should drop by with a copy of, I don't know, how about A Theory of Justice or Taking Rights Seriously, and see what they make of it.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Wheat Loaf
Feb 13, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
The "simulation" thing confuses me. Just to clarify, is the basic thesis that we are (or might be) simulations generated by a super-advanced AI? I don't really get it. Is it like the Matrix or something?

  • Locked thread