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A science goes much faster when you have objective observations and measurable quantities. That is the only reason why economists are so focused on prices, GDP,

by Iv 5y ago

A science goes much faster when you have objective observations and measurable quantities. That is the only reason why economists are so focused on prices, GDP, incomes. It would be great to have objective measures of happiness, satisfaction, enjoyment. Some people are actually pursuing attempts in that direction for instance look [1] Thing is, prices are a proxy of that. If you earn 30 USD an hour, then being ready to pay something 30 USD means you evaluate it at about an hour of work worth. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_economics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness_economics

jaygernaught 5y ago
Very interesting. I still have this niggling belief that things like price and utility should be able to be derived from a fundamental matrix of possible unique activities and learnings and there collapse into actions or learnings enacted. I don't know enough mathematics or economics to even start to model it, though I did watch the khan academy on eigenvalues, lol. but building it as a computational model in the way described in the article seems way more accessible to me. I might look for some code.
- zwaps 5y ago
  The most convincing description of utility is as a representation of ranked choices or preferences. Perhaps it’ll be an interesting exercise to think about two experiments, one asking for valuations of things, and one asking whether one thing is preferred above the other. Then, consider how these outcomes may be related!
  - jaygernaught 5y ago
    That's interesting. I did read quadratic voting more accurately reflects preference, along those lines. I wonder if there isn't some way of modelling a world with independent actors and a fixed number of unique activities, where availability of the activity changes with respect to preference, maybe conceptually your quadratic vote budget is effectively time units. I suppose you'd have to consider how innovation increases available activities. Is there a real world example of that type of model with pricing data?

by Iv 5y ago

jaygernaught 5y ago

Very interesting. I still have this niggling belief that things like price and utility should be able to be derived from a fundamental matrix of possible unique activities and learnings and there collapse into actions or learnings enacted. I don't know enough mathematics or economics to even start to model it, though I did watch the khan academy on eigenvalues, lol. but building it as a computational model in the way described in the article seems way more accessible to me. I might look for some code.

zwaps 5y ago
The most convincing description of utility is as a representation of ranked choices or preferences. Perhaps it’ll be an interesting exercise to think about two experiments, one asking for valuations of things, and one asking whether one thing is preferred above the other. Then, consider how these outcomes may be related!
- jaygernaught 5y ago
  That's interesting. I did read quadratic voting more accurately reflects preference, along those lines. I wonder if there isn't some way of modelling a world with independent actors and a fixed number of unique activities, where availability of the activity changes with respect to preference, maybe conceptually your quadratic vote budget is effectively time units. I suppose you'd have to consider how innovation increases available activities. Is there a real world example of that type of model with pricing data?