It’s even worse than that. Maybe I would be happier with my ice cream in a waffle cone the next time I have ice cream, but actually this is just a specific expression of being happier eating a variety of tasty things over time and it’s just that I haven’t had ice cream in a waffle cone for a while. The time after that, I will likely “prefer” something else despite my underlying preferences not having changed. Or something even more complex and interrelated with various parts of history and internal state.
It may be better to distinguish instances of “preferences” that are specific to a given internal state and history, and an agent’s general mapping over all internal states and histories.
It’s even worse than that. Maybe I would be happier with my ice cream in a waffle cone the next time I have ice cream, but actually this is just a specific expression of being happier eating a variety of tasty things over time and it’s just that I haven’t had ice cream in a waffle cone for a while. The time after that, I will likely “prefer” something else despite my underlying preferences not having changed. Or something even more complex and interrelated with various parts of history and internal state.
It may be better to distinguish instances of “preferences” that are specific to a given internal state and history, and an agent’s general mapping over all internal states and histories.