An additional problem with the original definition of optimization power is that it requires the agent to have a rich set of preferences. If it doesn’t prefer much but would have been very effective with its capacities had it had more preferences, I’d still say the optimization process was powerful. It seems to me that the most useful concept of optimization power will be independent of the optimizer’s actual preferences (or utility).
An additional problem with the original definition of optimization power is that it requires the agent to have a rich set of preferences. If it doesn’t prefer much but would have been very effective with its capacities had it had more preferences, I’d still say the optimization process was powerful. It seems to me that the most useful concept of optimization power will be independent of the optimizer’s actual preferences (or utility).