Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

pascal's mugging

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.16 in modern English

Syllables
pas-cal's -mug-ging
IPA
23
Scrabble Score
14
Letters
4
Syllables
10
Unique Chars

Meaning

name

A thought experiment demonstrating a problem in expected utility maximization. A rational agent should choose actions whose outcomes, when weighed by their probability, have higher utility; but some very unlikely outcomes may have very great utilities, and these utilities can grow faster than the probability diminishes. Hence the agent should focus more on vastly improbable cases with implausibly high rewards; this leads first to counterintuitive choices, and then to incoherence as the utility of every choice becomes unbounded.

Etymology

Coined by Eliezer Yudkowsky, based on Pascal's wager.

Questions

What does pascal's mugging mean?
A thought experiment demonstrating a problem in expected utility maximization. A rational agent should choose actions whose outcomes, when weighed by their probability, have higher utility; but some very unlikely outcomes may have very great utilities, and these utilities can grow faster than the probability diminishes. Hence the agent should focus more on vastly improbable cases with implausibly high rewards; this leads first to counterintuitive choices, and then to incoherence as the utility of every choice becomes unbounded.
Where does pascal's mugging come from?
Coined by Eliezer Yudkowsky, based on Pascal's wager.

How to pronounce pascal's mugging

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