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Algorithms would try to maximize expected value. As far as I can tell, here it seems humans value choices over expected value. In other words, humans pay for t
by johbjo 6y ago
Algorithms would try to maximize expected value.
As far as I can tell, here it seems humans value choices over expected value. In other words, humans pay for the perception of freedom.
- PeterisP 6y agoNo, my point is that our research on algorithms dealing with uncertain rewards show that in such scenarios intentionally exploring choices (entropy maximization) is the optimal way to maximize long-term expected value. I.e. it's not that humans value choices over expected value, since valuing choices actually is the correct way to get larger expected value (with caveats such as how explore vs exploit tradeoff needs to be changed over time) - the message isn't that humans "pay for the perception of freedom" but that human evolved values, even seemingly irrational such as "need for perception of freedom" are actually close to mathematically optimal behavior.
- aaronblohowiak 6y agoThis seems like another way of stating "paying for optionality under uncertainty is generally worth it", which seems like a well-established result.
- PeterisP 6y agoWell, testing whether the intuitive behavior of humans matches that or not is always an interesting result.