Comment by logicchains | Hacker News Reader

Comment by logicchains | Hacker News Reader

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>So a "rational" actor in economics seem (to me at least) to mean the typical selfish bastard who only acts to maximise their own profit outcome, no matter how its defined, and excludes a green warrior buying a good or chattel to NOT use it, or somebody buying it to give to charity, or buying it to round up another charge to get north of a shipping fee but its a nonce purchase and has no intent or purpose..

That's not true at all. Rational is defined as someone acting to maximise their utility (roughly satisfaction), which is capable of encompassing "a green warrior buying a good or chattel to NOT use it, or somebody buying it to give to charity, or buying it to round up another charge to get north of a shipping fee but its a nonce purchase and has no intent or purpose" perfectly fine.

I’ve always thought (or have been unaware of) a formal economic way of talking about this. Years ago I came up with my own definitions. “Altruism” can be defined as the part of your utility that increases because someone else’s utility increases. If you get no personal satisfaction out of something intrinsically but get satisfaction because someone else is happier, that is 100% altruistic. If you get some satisfaction but also some from the external benefit, you could tease out where it lies between 0 and 100%.

This also leads to another concept of “Malice” which would be the positive utility you get from others losing utility.

The crux to me is that often utility is talked about as only what you intrinsically get. Doing selfless things isn’t without benefit, it’s just without direct benefit and I have seen little ability to quantify it in economic terms.

>“Altruism” can be defined as the part of your utility that increases because someone else’s utility increases. If you get no personal satisfaction out of something intrinsically but get satisfaction because someone else is happier, that is 100% altruistic.

Wouldn't altruism be getting no satisfaction from increasing someone else's utility but doing it anyways?

> Wouldn't altruism be getting no satisfaction from increasing someone else's utility but doing it anyways?

head explodes

Any sufficiently advanced self-interest is indistinguishable from altruism.

Sufficiently high order, not advanced.

Family, tribe, nation, race, world, humanity, sentience.

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