An Adaption of the Jaynes Decision Algorithm

Abstract: There are two types of decisions: given the estimated state of affairs, one decidesto change oneself in a certain way (that is best suited for the given conditions); given whatone is, one decides to change the state of affairs in a certain way (that is best suited for whatone wants for oneself). Jaynes\' approach to decision theory accounts only for the first type ofdecisions, the case when one is just an observer of the external world and the decisiondoesn\'t change the world. However, many decisions involve the wish to transform theexternal environment. To account for this we need to add an additional step in Jaynes\'proposed algorithm.