AI safety, as a term, is sterile and hard to get excited about. Preventing catastrophe is important, but doesn't motivate me, since [ the…
Modified: January 24, 2022.
Imagine a really good person: someone whom everyone likes, is warm and friendly towards everyone they meet, gives freely of themselves, has…
Modified: April 01, 2022.
Modified: January 25, 2022.
[ my goals ]
Modified: September 16, 2021.
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…
Modified: July 14, 2023.
A New Yorker article on [ happiness ]: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/a-better-kind-of-happiness discusses happiness as a source…
Modified: February 12, 2022.
[ value alignment ] research often frames the problem as: first, learn the human 'value function' --- for every possible state of the world…
Modified: June 17, 2024.
The Eliezer Yudkowsky school of thought is that immortality is possible, and obviously desirable; any other position is [ learned…
Modified: January 24, 2022.
A lot of discussion around [ artificial intelligence ] implicitly conflates intelligence with [ consciousness ]. It assumes that as we…
Modified: January 18, 2023.
Inspired by this tweet: https://twitter.com/davmre/status/841803926051549184 Ways we currently equate intelligence with moral worth: animal…
Modified: February 25, 2022.
How do I justify being only 'mostly' [ vegetarian ]? I know that cows and chickens are abused to produce milk and eggs. Why is avoiding…
Modified: February 20, 2021.
Like democracy , meritocracy is the worst form of social organization, except for all the others that have been tried. Of course it is good…
Modified: December 01, 2022.
My position (a [ strong opinion weakly held ]) is that global utility is currently negative, and probably always has been. It's conceivable…
Modified: August 25, 2022.
Because: [ goals are arbitrary ]: achieving a goal, or failing to, doesn't really matter because the goal was arbitrary anyway. From the…
Modified: February 25, 2022.
From a [ utilitarian ] perspective, all of morality follows from improving global utility, and it follows that it'd be better to do this…
Modified: June 07, 2021.
Sometimes it's necessary and right to prioritize my own interests, even if [ global utility ] is ultimately the only metric. Developing…
Modified: March 07, 2022.
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…
Modified: April 01, 2022.
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…
Modified: February 10, 2022.
Modified: February 25, 2022.
Epistemic status: either this is true or TV is maybe one of the greatest contributions to human utility ever. Unclear. The average American…
Modified: January 24, 2022.
Status: in conflict with [ negative utility ] ? See also: the [ hedonic treadmill ]. Evolutionary, 'pain' exists to motivate you to get out…
Modified: March 20, 2022.
The Feynmannian/Sagan/Tyson "scientific" view is that the [ purpose ] of life is understanding : the world is a giant mystery, with layers…
Modified: February 25, 2022.
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…
Modified: January 25, 2022.
There are three main approaches to moral philosophy: [ utilitarian ]ism: you should feed a starving person because it will increase 'global…
Modified: June 07, 2021.
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…
Modified: February 22, 2022.
nostalgebraist argues that unconditional love can't and shouldn't exist : A parent might love their child "unconditionally," in the well…
Modified: April 12, 2023.
Modified: February 10, 2022.
Inspired by [ Emily ], I'm considering going 'mostly' vegetarian. What would that mean for me? I don't myself buy meats or dairy products…
Modified: March 07, 2020.