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It is assumed that each activity vector c can be assigned a unique utility µ(c)designating the satisfaction to society of engaging in the mix of activities specified by the vector. (This way of assigning utility has the nice feature that satisfying activities which do not directly consume goods, such as viewing pictures in a museum or conserving goods for future use, can be included in the model.) The object of the study is to compare various programs in terms of the utility sequences they produce. Typically, programs are compared over some interval of time (0, T)by taking the difference of their accumulated utilities |
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A program Cb*is considered optimal if |
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Because Q sets an upper limit to levels of effort, an optimal program always exists. A program Cb will often be satisfactory if its rate of accrual of utility Ub(T)/T is comparable to that of Cb*. |
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Generally interest centers on "noncontracting" economies where, once an activity is possible, it continues to be possible at any subsequent time. This can be guaranteed, for example, if there is a set of initial goods which are "regenerated" by all activities (cf. sunlight, water, and air) and from which all other goods can be produced by appropriate sequences of activities. In such economies a mix of activities can be tried and, if found to be of above-average utility, can be employed again in the future. |
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In the  framework, the set of admissible activity mixes Q becomes the set of structures  . An adaptive plan t generates a program C by selecting a sequence of activity vectors  on the basis of information received from the environment (economy). The environment E in this case makes itself felt only through the observed utility sequence  ;thus different utility functions correspond to different environments. Within this framework, the basic concern is discovery of an adaptive plan which, over a broad variety of environments, generates programs which work "near-optimally." A typical criterion of "near- |
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