Utility Function

Full Title or Meme

A current measure of the future good of one or more current actions.

Context

• The Ethics of any function can measured by the scope of the population that are expected to benefit by the action.
• The future good measure should be a net value of the good minus the harm.
• A forward-looking Utility Function would give high priority to new technology and the promise that it provides. But it may be very difficult to formulate a Utility Function before the Technology Risk can be evaluated.

Problem

• Maximizing the Utility Function is likely to leave out the poor and disabled since any increase in their function might not be offset by function from many more people. That would mean that not all people need to succeed in the maximum good for the maximum number.
• In politics where the Utility Function is evaluated and decision made, the mob rules and may not respect the minority opinion.
• The rights of all should not be impacted by the short-term interest, even of the majority of the population.

Solutions

Utilitarianism of Jermeny Benthum and later John Stuart Mill seems to provide a way to remake society as the industrial revolution got under way in the 1800's. The ultimate expression of this was in the book by Karl Marx In practice it was found to have too many flaws although it is still any interesting excise when the Utility Function is just one of many models used in the evaluation of alternatives.

Other Material

• Also see the wiki page on Expected Value.