It seems to me that time discounting is a heuristic to deal with death
I think a large part of time discounting is dealing with uncertainty about the future. It’s notable that people in unstable societies/situations tend to time discount more then people in more stable situations.
Note that instrumental discounting is not just down to uncertainly—there’s also mortality, future-impotence, resource limitations, the divide-and-conquer strategy—and so on. You should probably be trying to factor all of those things out.
I think a large part of time discounting is dealing with uncertainty about the future. It’s notable that people in unstable societies/situations tend to time discount more then people in more stable situations.
See Eliezer’s post against discounting—I’ve been trying to address the problem that’s left even after you factor out uncertainty.
Note that instrumental discounting is not just down to uncertainly—there’s also mortality, future-impotence, resource limitations, the divide-and-conquer strategy—and so on. You should probably be trying to factor all of those things out.