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Question to Assignment 5
Hi. Unfortunately I don’t understand the assignment. I understand how the game works and that we need to calculate x with the help of the EU-Function. But I don’t know what I should use for the expected utility function. What is the action a and what is the evidence e? I think the outcomes s’ are the number of tosses n. Therefore the utility function should be U(n) = (2^n – x) or? But then what is calculated with the second utility function U(k) = m*log_n(k)? And what does the k stand for?
There is no mention of „x“…
Expected utility is defined in the slides. Which utility function you should use is explicitly stated in each subexercise: „Assume your utility function is exactly the monetary value…“, „Assume now, that your utility function…“
Well, an action is something you can do. Evidence is any observation you have made that is relevant with respect to your estimation what’s going to happen assuming you do something.
So what can you do and what obervations can you make that would change what you would do? 
That seems a reasonable model to me…
…exactly what the exercise says it is
…a different utility. There is never a correct utility function; a utility function reflects to some degree some subjective value/preference of you/an agent - hence there is always a choice incolved. There are only utility functions that make more or less sense.
The point of this exercise is to compare two choices of utility functions in order to see which makes more or less sense.
Quote, exercise sheet: „your utility function for having k dollars is…“