I can think of some purposes this sadness might serve—eg signalling or self-punishment (for lack of past efforts) with TDT type considerations for why you wouldn’t just skip it.
He specifically said he’s talking about “homo economicus”-”rational”-like decision. An agent like that should have no need to punish itself—by having a negative emotion—since the potential loss of utility itself is a compelling reason to take action beforehand. So self-punishing is out.
How do you think sadness would serve as a signalling device, in this case?
This is speculative, but if someone isn’t upset about losing an opportunity, one could infer that they never really believed that they had it in the first place—whereas if they’re upset, perhaps losing the opportunity was just bad luck.
I can think of some purposes this sadness might serve—eg signalling or self-punishment (for lack of past efforts) with TDT type considerations for why you wouldn’t just skip it.
He specifically said he’s talking about “homo economicus”-”rational”-like decision. An agent like that should have no need to punish itself—by having a negative emotion—since the potential loss of utility itself is a compelling reason to take action beforehand. So self-punishing is out. How do you think sadness would serve as a signalling device, in this case?
This is speculative, but if someone isn’t upset about losing an opportunity, one could infer that they never really believed that they had it in the first place—whereas if they’re upset, perhaps losing the opportunity was just bad luck.