AI safety, as a term, is sterile and hard to get excited about. Preventing catastrophe is important, but doesn't motivate me, since [ the…
Imagine a really good person: someone whom everyone likes, is warm and friendly towards everyone they meet, gives freely of themselves, has…
[ my goals ]
If you fail to achieve your goals, you'll be sad---almost self-evidently. Nonetheless: there is no coherent notion of the 'right' goals to…
A New Yorker article on [ happiness ]: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/a-better-kind-of-happiness discusses happiness as a source…
The Eliezer Yudkowsky school of thought is that immortality is possible, and obviously desirable; any other position is [ learned…
A lot of discussion around [ artificial intelligence ] implicitly conflates intelligence with [ consciousness ]. It assumes that as we…
Inspired by this tweet: https://twitter.com/davmre/status/841803926051549184 Ways we currently equate intelligence with moral worth: animal…
How do I justify being only 'mostly' [ vegetarian ]? I know that cows and chickens are abused to produce milk and eggs. Why is avoiding…
Like democracy , meritocracy is the worst form of social organization, except for all the others that have been tried. Of course it is good…
My position (a [ strong opinion weakly held ]) is that global utility is currently negative, and probably always has been. It's conceivable…
Because: [ goals are arbitrary ]: achieving a goal, or failing to, doesn't really matter because the goal was arbitrary anyway. From the…
From a [ utilitarian ] perspective, all of morality follows from improving global utility, and it follows that it'd be better to do this…
I need to genuinely care about other people and want the best for them, both in general, and for specific people in my life. Why? Obviously…
Sometimes it's necessary and right to prioritize my own interests, even if [ global utility ] is ultimately the only metric. Developing…
Pasting a quote from Adam Smith by way of HN (source http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMS7.html , I should read the whole thing…) that…
Epistemic status: either this is true or TV is maybe one of the greatest contributions to human utility ever. Unclear. The average American…
Status: in conflict with [ negative utility ] ? See also: the [ hedonic treadmill ]. Evolutionary, 'pain' exists to motivate you to get out…
The Feynmannian/Sagan/Tyson "scientific" view is that the [ purpose ] of life is understanding : the world is a giant mystery, with layers…
I feel an obligation to try to do big things with my life, because I've had access to rare opportunities. If ten thousand randomly selected…
There are three main approaches to moral philosophy: [ utilitarian ]ism: you should feed a starving person because it will increase 'global…
If you and I agree of our own volition to exchange X for Y, this implies that we both believe we are gaining value in the trade. If one of…
nostalgebraist argues that unconditional love can't and shouldn't exist : A parent might love their child "unconditionally," in the well…
Inspired by NameRedacted, I'm considering going 'mostly' vegetarian. What would that mean for me? I don't myself buy meats or dairy products…