I think the embedded agency people are working on this?—I’m afraid I’m not up-to-date on the details. But when I object to people making appeals to consequences, the thing I’m objecting to is never people trying to do a sophisticated embedded-agency thing; I’m objecting to people trying to get away with choosing to be biased.
In that case, maybe you can clarify (in this or future posts) that you’re not against doing sophisticated embedded-agency things? Also, can you give some examples of what you’re objecting to, so I can judge for myself whether they’re actually doing sophisticated embedded-agency things?
Appeals to consequences tend to diverge (because everyone has her own idiosyncratic favored consequence); “just make the map be accurate” is a natural focal point (because the truth is generally useful to everyone).
This just means that in most cases, appeals to consequences won’t move others much, even if they took such consequences into consideration. It doesn’t seem to be a reason for people to refuse to consider such appeals at all. If appeals to consequences only tend to diverge, it seems a good idea to actually consider such appeals, so that in the rare cases where people’s interests converge, they can be moved by such appeals.
So, I have to say that I still don’t understand why you’re taking the position that you are. If you have a longer version of the “story” that you can tell, please consider doing that.
In that case, maybe you can clarify (in this or future posts) that you’re not against doing sophisticated embedded-agency things? Also, can you give some examples of what you’re objecting to, so I can judge for myself whether they’re actually doing sophisticated embedded-agency things?
This just means that in most cases, appeals to consequences won’t move others much, even if they took such consequences into consideration. It doesn’t seem to be a reason for people to refuse to consider such appeals at all. If appeals to consequences only tend to diverge, it seems a good idea to actually consider such appeals, so that in the rare cases where people’s interests converge, they can be moved by such appeals.
So, I have to say that I still don’t understand why you’re taking the position that you are. If you have a longer version of the “story” that you can tell, please consider doing that.
I will endeavor to make my intuitions more rigorous and write up the results in a future post.