[Kisai]

I was reading about artificial intelligence and the attempt to create rational agents. I was wondering if psychologicially 'rational' people would identify with the conclusion that the authors reached and consider themselves rational agents:

Originally Posted by Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

What is rational at any given time depends on four things: • The performance measure that defines the criterion of success. • The agent's prior knowledge of the environment. • The actions that the agent can perform. • The agent's percept sequence[1] to date. This leads to a definition of a rational agent: For each possible percept sequence, a rational agent should select an action that is expected to maximize its performance measure, given the evidence provided by the percept sequence and whatever built-in knowledge the agent has.

[1] A percept sequence is a series of perceptions about the environment. For instance "The sky is overcast" and "I am wet" might lead one to conclude "It is raining. I should get an umbrella."

[ppu6502]

Rational behavior is the behavior which is -most often- the most effective, based on the assumption that prior experiences are indicative of future results.

Taking the most rational choice every moment limits the ability to discover new solutions, though - so some level of irrational behavior is desirable, and the determination of what ratio is best, is a meta-variable to be learned through experience.

[Distance]

Must rational be premised on linear?

[Kisai]

	Originally Posted by Distance To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Must rational be premised on linear?

Linear as in a function that is both additive and homogenous in the first degree?

---------- Post added 06-07-2012 at 02:01 PM ----------

	Originally Posted by ppu6502 To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
	Taking the most rational choice every moment limits the ability to discover new solutions, though - so some level of irrational behavior is desirable, and the determination of what ratio is best, is a meta-variable to be learned through experience.

Ah. There is a hinting in the section that I'm in that random behavior is actually intelligent behavior sometimes, but I haven't gotten to that chapter yet. Good observation, though.

[Zsych]

I'd say that rational people are typically biased towards paths that are theoretically correct within the context they believe has priority, but not necessarily optimal given real world situations containing circumstances and people that follow different models. Being rational is normally about lower emotional bias in one's own thinking.