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I think the problem is pretty interesting though. Better definitions of curiosity might still have this failure mode. Human curiosity definitely does!



As an example, look at the second link on HN right now: https://neal.fun/infinite-craft/

I just opened up a discord server I'm in and everyone is spending quite a lot of time on it!


Ya I think they are called loot boxes


That's not curiosity, that's trying to get a reward through randomness. Loot boxes are like being hungry, going to your kitchen, and picking 3 random ingredients to combine. The mayonnaise, raw onion, and ice cube soup is not so good. So you try again. Eventually you land on cooked spaghetti, butter, and cheese. This encourages you to keep trying.

Curiosity is more like scrolling on social media. You know there have been interesting things there before, so you keep looking for more interesting things.




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