Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on The Sword of Good - Less Wrong

85 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 September 2009 12:53AM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 September 2009 10:48:13PM 7 points [-]

It's a convention of fantasy and science fiction that there can exist sentient races which are, by their very nature, inimical to mankind, and can therefore be justifiably killed on sight

And by the way, I'm willing to buy that. Hirou's sin is that he didn't actually buy it, as in, pay for the conclusion, if you see what I mean.

Comment author: dfranke 03 September 2009 10:53:59PM 4 points [-]

No, I don't. Can you clarify?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 03 September 2009 10:59:06PM 14 points [-]

Hirou didn't bother to verify that the orcs actually were irredeemably evil, which is possible, but you would have to see evidence. Hirou just saw something physically ugly, and his social surroundings expected him to kill them. But the view which he acted-as-if-believed was possible, it simply wasn't true. Arguably my Orthodox Jewish parents committed more blatant mistakes - if far more theoretical mistakes - in endorsing God's murder of the Egyptian firstborn.