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I think you have your local and global optima reversed. I might feel better in the short-term if I'm allowed to murder someone. Longer-term it's likely to be wo
by maroonblazer 9y ago
I think you have your local and global optima reversed. I might feel better in the short-term if I'm allowed to murder someone. Longer-term it's likely to be worse for me.
- nnq 9y agoGenerally you don't refer to the time dimension when talking about local/global optima, you're talking about "points in the space of possible parameters" or here "particular combinations of laws/rules from all the ones possible". Probably not obvious for folks not into machine-learning (or other compsci areas with similar terminology), I know... not the best cross-disciplinary metaphor :) What you refer to I would call "current/local reward" vs "total (lifetime) reward", or "punishment" if you take the negative. And, by "local optima" I mean that "any small tweak/modification to the current set of laws" would result in worse systems, even if there probably are combinations of laws/rules that would make a better society further away in the space of possibilities. To get from current state to a higher local optima (or to an imaginary global one), would involve going through much worse intermediary states - things like near destruction of civilization or other stuff nobody would want to live through...
- maroonblazer 9y agoI get all of that but it seems a distinction without a difference. We are all on this planet together, so whether or not I'm brilliant and get to kill or rape a little bit (or not) in exchange for my brilliance seems beside the point. Maximizing human well-being seems axiomatic to our project here; not a 'playpen'.