What is talking about are called more technically called second order desires. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher-order_volition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

What is talking about are called more technically called second order desires. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher-order_volition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher-order_volition) From his example he "wants cheese cake" but he "wants to want to focus on his work" and instead he is "wanting cheesecake". Wikipedia gives the good example of the drug addict who "wants drugs" but he "wants to not want drugs". Its very close to the ideas of self control and willpower. Second order desires are important in artificial intelligence as most AI only has 1st order desires (e.g. 'make a plan of actions to accomplish something'). Second order desires can be used as a controller for 1st order AI processes, and are therefore very powerful (think about a real time system that can know when it has spent too much time planning, and needs to use whatever its current best plan is).