Hedonic asymmetries
Creating really good outcomes for humanity seems hard. We get bored. If we don’t get bored, we still don’t like the idea of joy without variety. And joyful experiences only seems good if they are real...
View ArticleDistributed public goods provision
Most people benefit significantly from privately funded public goods (e.g. Wikipedia). If we all contribute to such public goods, then we can all end up better off. But as an individual it’s almost...
View ArticleDemand offsetting
For the last few years I’ve been avoiding factory farmed eggs because I think they involve a lot of unnecessary suffering. I’m hesitant to be part of that even if it’s not a big deal on utilitarian...
View ArticleImproving capital gains taxes
As I’ve mentioned, I think the tax code could be improved. In a departure from my usual style, this post fleshes out some fairness-based arguments for one of my favorite changes. (I think that this...
View ArticleSecure homes for digital people
Being a “digital person” could be scary—if I don’t have control over the hardware I’m running on, then someone else could get my code and run tons of copies in horrible conditions. (See also: qntm’s...
View ArticleEDT with updating double counts
I recently got confused thinking about the following case: Calculator bet: I am offered the opportunity to bet on a mathematical statement X to which I initially assign 50% probability (perhaps X =...
View ArticleWhat is causality to an evidential decision theorist?
(Subsumed by: Timeless Decision Theory, EDT=CDT) People sometimes object to evidential decision theory by saying: “It seems like the distinction between correlation and causation is really important...
View ArticleDecision theory and dynamic inconsistency
Here is my current take on decision theory: When making a decision after observing X, we should condition (or causally intervene) on statements like “My decision algorithm outputs Y after observing...
View ArticleThree reasons to cooperate
In this post I’ll discuss three reasons to cooperate in a truly one-shot prisoner’s dilemma: Kindness: You care about the other player. Correlation. Your decision is correlated with the other player’s...
View ArticleSelf-driving car bets
This month I lost a bunch of bets. Back in early 2016 I bet at even odds that self-driving ride sharing would be available in 10 US cities by July 2023. Then I made similar bets a dozen times because...
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