5  Decision Making Process For Agents

It goes through the following loop

1. (Planning horizon) Resource abundance compared to Rmin? Trust on available resources (both self and others) getting more if needed?

   Planning for how long? Plan long only if I will survive long, else why waste resource on something that I will never live to utilize? Employ system 1 or system 2 thinking?

2. (Recon) Available actions to take next? Which resources needs to be defended? Which resources can we target? Explore or exploit?

3. (System 1 estimation) How much resources is needed to take the next action? Means gathering, improving, or protecting the resource in consideration.

4. (Confidence and emotions) How much probability do we have of the success of that action? This leads to emotions in anticipation of resources.

   Past data matters, whether we won or lost last time. Or borrow data (resource) from someone else with good trust (an abstraction).

   Planning horizon determines patience in conficts and emotions.

5. (Procrastinate or not) Is it worth taking the action? Habit stays, loss aversion, status quo bias. When certainty of keeping current resources > certainty of getting new better resources.

   Depends on trust on the data. Else keep searching for new options, endless research. Procrastination.

   Is this rejected permanently or delaying?

6. (Escalation ladder) How much force to apply? If confidence in handling pushback, escalate quickly and wrap quickly. Else hedge or hesitate, leading to procrastination.

7. Either an action is choosen among the alternatives, or maintains status quo.

   If the action is taken conflict starts, are we winning or losing? But past doesn’t matter except the data for evaluation.

   Brain is concerned about what will happen in future. Emotions are indicator. If negative emotions, give up else do more of it. Leading to habits in long run, easier to do as subconscious takes over. Updates Rmin and Rcurrent. Goes back to step 1.