Mathematically speaking, let U1 be the woman’s utility value if the man is in Hell, and U2 is her utility value if the man is in Heaven. What does the story tell us about values of U1 and U2?
At first sight it says that U2 is greater than U1, because the woman really wants the man to join her, but also U1 is not less than U2, because she is not sorry that her attempt failed. This is mathematically impossible.
I suppose a Christian reader could suggest that both values U1 and U2 are infinite, because she is in Heaven. So it’s like she was trying to increase U to U+k, because increasing U is the natural thing to do, but it does not matter that she failed, because if U is infinite, then U is not smaller that U+k.
Now I am not sure, does this interpretation mean something, or is it just explaining away? I can’t even imagine the very large values of U, nor infinite ones.
Another explanation could be based on “predestination” at the moment of one’s death. (The story happens in the afterlife.) It was already decided whether the man will choose Heaven or Hell, but until the moment of his choice, nobody else can know the result. So the woman comes with hope that the man will choose Heaven, but he chooses Hell. She is a perfect rationalist, so she immediately realizes that the uncertaintly existed only in her mind, she discards her mental sunk costs, accepts the reality and moves on.
This explanation suggests that she was unable to change his decision, but she still tried to convince him, so why was she trying? Maybe at that moment, she wasn’t behaving as a perfect rationalist, and his decision somehow woke her up. (She is in Heaven, perhaps between rationality and irrationality she always chooses the variant that makes her more happy at the given moment.)
Back to the Earth… Our empathy motivates us to help our friends. This is why we feel that empathy is morally good. When we realize it is impossible to help our friends, it would be rational to lose empathy. It goes against our intuition, because empathy does not work this way, because in most situation there is something we can do to help our friends. (Even if they have an incurable illness, we can increase their utility function by talking to them.)
Mathematically speaking, let U1 be the woman’s utility value if the man is in Hell, and U2 is her utility value if the man is in Heaven. What does the story tell us about values of U1 and U2?
At first sight it says that U2 is greater than U1, because the woman really wants the man to join her, but also U1 is not less than U2, because she is not sorry that her attempt failed. This is mathematically impossible.
I think this mostly tells us that your model doesn’t actually model humans very well.
A simple explanation is that there’s a system in her brain that guides her action towards making the man join her, but the success or failure of this system doesn’t affect her emotional state.
Mathematically speaking, let U1 be the woman’s utility value if the man is in Hell, and U2 is her utility value if the man is in Heaven. What does the story tell us about values of U1 and U2?
At first sight it says that U2 is greater than U1, because the woman really wants the man to join her, but also U1 is not less than U2, because she is not sorry that her attempt failed. This is mathematically impossible.
I suppose a Christian reader could suggest that both values U1 and U2 are infinite, because she is in Heaven. So it’s like she was trying to increase U to U+k, because increasing U is the natural thing to do, but it does not matter that she failed, because if U is infinite, then U is not smaller that U+k.
Now I am not sure, does this interpretation mean something, or is it just explaining away? I can’t even imagine the very large values of U, nor infinite ones.
Another explanation could be based on “predestination” at the moment of one’s death. (The story happens in the afterlife.) It was already decided whether the man will choose Heaven or Hell, but until the moment of his choice, nobody else can know the result. So the woman comes with hope that the man will choose Heaven, but he chooses Hell. She is a perfect rationalist, so she immediately realizes that the uncertaintly existed only in her mind, she discards her mental sunk costs, accepts the reality and moves on.
This explanation suggests that she was unable to change his decision, but she still tried to convince him, so why was she trying? Maybe at that moment, she wasn’t behaving as a perfect rationalist, and his decision somehow woke her up. (She is in Heaven, perhaps between rationality and irrationality she always chooses the variant that makes her more happy at the given moment.)
Back to the Earth… Our empathy motivates us to help our friends. This is why we feel that empathy is morally good. When we realize it is impossible to help our friends, it would be rational to lose empathy. It goes against our intuition, because empathy does not work this way, because in most situation there is something we can do to help our friends. (Even if they have an incurable illness, we can increase their utility function by talking to them.)
I think this mostly tells us that your model doesn’t actually model humans very well.
A simple explanation is that there’s a system in her brain that guides her action towards making the man join her, but the success or failure of this system doesn’t affect her emotional state.
Oh yes, “adaptation executers vs utility maximizers”.
So she has followed the algorithm: “if there is a chance to help, try to help / if there isn’t a chance to help, ignore”.
And the creepy part was how she perfectly knew which situation is it now, and how she accomodated so quickly.