I think that humans can mentally self-modify to some extant, especially if it really really matters. If you really needed to be optimistic, you might be able to modify yourself to be such by significantly participating in certain types of organized religion. (This is a rather extreme example—a couple minutes of brainstorming would probably yield ideas with (much?) lower cost and similar results, but it illustrates the possibility.)
Expected utility maximizers are not necessarily served by updating their map to accurately reflect the territory—there are cases such as the above when one might make an effort to willingly make one’s map reflect the territory less accurately. The reason why expected utility maximizers often do try to update their map to accurately reflect the territory is that it usually yields greater utility in comparison to alternative strategies—having an accurate map is (I would guess) not much of a source of terminal utility for most.
I might theoretically be able to do this, but it would involve rejecting the entirely of rationality and becoming a sophilist or somehting, so after recovery the thing my body would have become would not undo the modification and instead go intentionally create UFAI as an artistic statement or somehting.
Ok, a slight exaggeration, but far less slight than I’m comfortable with.
Since you’re likely the one who would benefit from it, hopefully you brainstormed for a few minutes before you decided that my “religion” approach was really the most effective one—I just typed the first idea that popped in my head and seemed to work.
Huh? Not only was it just an example, but Sophilism is incompatible with every religion I know of.
Anyway, I didn’t brainstorm it for roughly the same reason I don’t brainstorm specific ways to build a pepertum mobile. The way my brain is set up, I can’t reject rationality in any single situation like that without rejecting the entire concept of rationality, and without that my entire belief structure disintegrates onto postmodern relativist sophilism. Similar but more temporary things have happened before and the consequences are truly catastrophic.
And yea, this obviously isn’t how it’s supposed to work but I’ve not been able to fix it, or even figure out what would be needed to do so.
I think that humans can mentally self-modify to some extant, especially if it really really matters. If you really needed to be optimistic, you might be able to modify yourself to be such by significantly participating in certain types of organized religion. (This is a rather extreme example—a couple minutes of brainstorming would probably yield ideas with (much?) lower cost and similar results, but it illustrates the possibility.)
Expected utility maximizers are not necessarily served by updating their map to accurately reflect the territory—there are cases such as the above when one might make an effort to willingly make one’s map reflect the territory less accurately. The reason why expected utility maximizers often do try to update their map to accurately reflect the territory is that it usually yields greater utility in comparison to alternative strategies—having an accurate map is (I would guess) not much of a source of terminal utility for most.
ETA: Missing words. >.<
I might theoretically be able to do this, but it would involve rejecting the entirely of rationality and becoming a sophilist or somehting, so after recovery the thing my body would have become would not undo the modification and instead go intentionally create UFAI as an artistic statement or somehting.
Ok, a slight exaggeration, but far less slight than I’m comfortable with.
Since you’re likely the one who would benefit from it, hopefully you brainstormed for a few minutes before you decided that my “religion” approach was really the most effective one—I just typed the first idea that popped in my head and seemed to work.
Huh? Not only was it just an example, but Sophilism is incompatible with every religion I know of.
Anyway, I didn’t brainstorm it for roughly the same reason I don’t brainstorm specific ways to build a pepertum mobile. The way my brain is set up, I can’t reject rationality in any single situation like that without rejecting the entire concept of rationality, and without that my entire belief structure disintegrates onto postmodern relativist sophilism. Similar but more temporary things have happened before and the consequences are truly catastrophic.
And yea, this obviously isn’t how it’s supposed to work but I’ve not been able to fix it, or even figure out what would be needed to do so.