This system does seem to lead to the odd effect that you would probably be more willing to pay Pascal’s Mugger to save 10^10^100 people than you would be willing to pay to save 10^10^101 people, since the leverage penalties make them about equal, but the latter has a higher complexity cost. In fact the leverage penalty effectively means that you cannot distinguish between events providing more utility than you can provide an appropriate amount of evidence to match.
It’s not that odd. If someone asked to borrow ten dollars, and said he’d pay you back tomorrow, would you believe him? What if he said he’d pay back $20? $100? $1000000? All the money in the world?
At some point, the probability goes down faster than the price goes up. That’s why you can’t just get a loan and keep raising the interest to make up for the fact that you probably won’t ever pay it back.
This system does seem to lead to the odd effect that you would probably be more willing to pay Pascal’s Mugger to save 10^10^100 people than you would be willing to pay to save 10^10^101 people, since the leverage penalties make them about equal, but the latter has a higher complexity cost. In fact the leverage penalty effectively means that you cannot distinguish between events providing more utility than you can provide an appropriate amount of evidence to match.
It’s not that odd. If someone asked to borrow ten dollars, and said he’d pay you back tomorrow, would you believe him? What if he said he’d pay back $20? $100? $1000000? All the money in the world?
At some point, the probability goes down faster than the price goes up. That’s why you can’t just get a loan and keep raising the interest to make up for the fact that you probably won’t ever pay it back.