Non-Infinite Rationality

[rousseau]

In layman's terms it's easy to look around and make vague statements like "[x] isn't rational", as if being reasonable is a binary that a person/thing is or isn't.

I think, instead, it's better to look at people and organizations as having non-infinite rationality, that is they are all limited by the amount of knowledge that they actually hold and their ability to reason with that amount of knowledge. So systems all have some degree of rationality, but how well those systems can work toward some end-goal is ultimately limited by the amount of knowledge they hold and how well they can process it.

So I guess this has a few conclusions that I can think of:

• To say a person or thing is 'rational' is meaningless, instead we can say they have an inclination to try to reason
• The more data someone/something has to work with, the more effective they are
• The better at processing data, the more effective the thing is

I imagine this is a normal line of thought for some philosopher somewhere, but I thought I'd get it out there..

 

[Kharakov]

"The more data someone/something has to work with, the more effective they are"

In some situations- there are various degrees, or milestones of data acquisition that one goes through. Sometimes acquisition of data slows down the decision making process:

• when data indicates that more data is needed in order to make a well informed decision
• when data indicates multiple branches with desirable and/or undesirable outcomes
• when data contradicts other data received, and data must be processed in order to eliminate contradictions
• when data creates additional data, and/or options that must be explored

These are all things that the decision makers of reality face every day. There are milestones reached, when one knows that certain paths are not wise, when one realizes that in the end it is loyalty to all that matters, and this loyalty is the great leveling factor of reality.