I primarily mean reward in the sense of reinforcement—a functional definition from animal psychology and neuroscience: reinforcement is whatever makes the previous behavior more likely in the future.
But I also mean a positive feeling (qualia if you like, although I find that term too contentious to use much). I think we have a positive feeling when we’re getting a reward (reinforcement), but I’m not sure that all positive feelings work as enforcement. Maybe.
As to how deep can that recursive learning mechanism go: very deep. When people spend time arguing about logic and abstract values online, they’ve gone deep. There’s no limit- until the world intervenes to tell you your chain of predicted-reward inferences has gone off-track. For instance, if that person has lost their job, and they’re cold and hungry, they might track down the (correct) logic that they ascribed too much value to proving people wrong on the internet, and reduce their estimate of its value.
I’m so glad you found that response helpful!
I primarily mean reward in the sense of reinforcement—a functional definition from animal psychology and neuroscience: reinforcement is whatever makes the previous behavior more likely in the future.
But I also mean a positive feeling (qualia if you like, although I find that term too contentious to use much). I think we have a positive feeling when we’re getting a reward (reinforcement), but I’m not sure that all positive feelings work as enforcement. Maybe.
As to how deep can that recursive learning mechanism go: very deep. When people spend time arguing about logic and abstract values online, they’ve gone deep. There’s no limit- until the world intervenes to tell you your chain of predicted-reward inferences has gone off-track. For instance, if that person has lost their job, and they’re cold and hungry, they might track down the (correct) logic that they ascribed too much value to proving people wrong on the internet, and reduce their estimate of its value.