1.1 Summary & Table of Contents

This is the first of a series of five blog posts on valence, which I’ll be serializing over the next couple weeks. (Or email me to read it all right now.) Here's an overview of the whole series, and then we’ll jump right into the first post!

1.1.1 Summary & Table of Contents—for the whole Valence series

Let's say a thought pops into your mind: “I could open the window right now”. Maybe you then immediately stand up and go open the window. Or maybe you don’t. (“Nah, I’ll keep it closed,” you might say to yourself.) I claim that there's a final-common-pathway signal in your brain that cleaves those two possibilities: when this special signal is positive, then the current “thought” will stick around, and potentially lead to actions and/or direct-follow-up thoughts; and when this signal is negative, then the current “thought” will get [...]

---

Outline:

(00:05) 1.1 Summary and Table of Contents

(00:25) 1.1.1 Summary and Table of Contents—for the whole Valence series

(04:58) 1.1.2 Summary and Table of Contents—for this first post in particular

(05:54) 1.2 Model-based reinforcement learning (RL)

(07:21) 1.3 Actor-critic RL, and “valence”

(10:21) 1.4 Terms closely related to “valence”

(12:53) 1.5 Clarifications

(12:57) 1.5.1 “Valence” (as I’m using the term) is a property of a thought—not a situation, nor activity, nor course-of-action, etc.

(13:56) 1.5.2 Valence (as I’m using the term) is different from “hedonic valence” / pleasantness

(16:13) 1.5.3 “We do things exactly when they’re positive-valence” should feel almost tautological

(17:38) 1.5.4 Valence is also part of the world model, and hence (confusingly) a valence can be either real or imagined

(22:33) 1.5.5 Valence is just one of many dimensions of conscious interoceptive experience

(24:33) 1.5.6 Fine print: Throughout this series, I’m only talking about the brain's “main” reinforcement learning system

(26:31) 1.5.7 I’m sweeping some complexity under the rug

(28:03) 1.6 Conclusion

The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration.

---

First published:
December 4th, 2023

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/As7bjEAbNpidKx6LR/valence-series-1-introduction

---

Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“[Valence series] 1. Introduction” by Steven Byrnes

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“[Valence series] 1. Introduction” by Steven Byrnes