CannibalSmith comments on Open Thread: April 2010, Part 2 - Less Wrong
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If that distinction exists, my three formulations are not identical. Yes?
Not sure. "Inherently good" could mean "good for its own sake, not good for a purpose", but it seems like it could also mean "by its very nature, it's (instrumentally) good". And the fact that you said "gather or preserve" makes me want to come up with a value system that only cares about gathering or only cares about preserving.
I'm not sure one couldn't find similarly sized semantic holes in anything, but there they are regardless.
Your 3 formulations should be identical. Here's your argument:
My first thought when I read this is, Why are we gathering information? The answer? Because we may need it in the future. What will we need it for? Presumably to attain some other (terminal) end, since if information was a terminal end the argument wouldn't be "we may need it in the future," it would be "we need it."
Maybe I am just misunderstanding you?