Rationality in current era -- A recent survey

Abstract

Rationality has been an intriguing topic for several decades. Even the scope of definition of rationality across different subjects varies.Several theories (e.g., game theory) initially evolved on the basis that agents (e.g., humans) are perfectly rational. One interpretation of perfect rationality is that agents always make the optimal decision which maximizes their expected utilities. However, subsequently this assumption was relaxed to include bounded rationality where agents have limitations in terms of computing resources and biases which prevents them to take the optimal decision. However, with recent advances in (quantum) computing, artificial intelligence (AI), science and technology etc., has led to the thought that perhaps the concept of rationality would be augmented with machine intelligence which will enable agents to take decision optimally with higher regularity. However, there are divergent views on this topic.The paper attempts to put forward a recent survey (last five years) of research on these divergent views. These views may be grouped into three schools of thoughts. The first school is the one which is sceptical of progress of AI and believes that human intelligence will always supersede machine intelligence. The second school of thought thinks that advent of AI and advances in computing will help in better understanding of bounded rationality. Third school of thought believes that bounds of bounded rationality will be extended by advances in AI and various other fields. This survey hopes to provide a starting point for further research.