thomblake comments on Attention Less Wrong: We need an FAQ - Less Wrong

11 Post author: Kevin 27 April 2010 10:06AM

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Comment author: thomblake 28 April 2010 10:09:00PM *  0 points [-]

I'm not sure that subjective nonrelativism is a possibility though.

Surely it's a logical possibility. Stipulate: "What's right is either X or Y, where we ask each person in the universe to think of a random integer, sum them, and pull off the last bit, 0 meaning X is right and 1 meaning Y is right."

ETA: CEV, perhaps?

Comment author: Jack 29 April 2010 12:11:23AM *  1 point [-]

Wouldn't "Everyone should do what my moral code says they should" be subjective nonrelativism? Surely there are lots of people who believe that.

Comment author: thomblake 29 April 2010 12:36:01PM 1 point [-]

I don't think the people who believe that, think that their own mental states are what determine the truth of their moral code.

Comment author: Matt_Simpson 28 April 2010 10:22:04PM *  1 point [-]

ETA: CEV, perhaps?

Is CEV even an ethical theory? I thought it was more of an algorithm for extracting human preferences to put them in an AI.

Comment author: thomblake 29 April 2010 12:33:03PM 0 points [-]

Surely it's a de facto ethical theory, since it determines entirely what the FAI should do. But then, the FAI is not supposed to be a person, so that might make a difference for our use of 'ethical'.

Comment author: Matt_Simpson 29 April 2010 01:23:43PM 0 points [-]

hmm. Then wouldn't it be premised on subjective relativism? (relative to humans)

Comment author: thomblake 29 April 2010 01:45:57PM 0 points [-]

Yes, I'd considered that when I wrote it, but it's an odd use of 'relative' when it might be equivalent to 'the same for everyone'.

Comment author: Matt_Simpson 29 April 2010 01:57:55PM *  0 points [-]

not all possible minds, just human minds

EDIT: but if you thought all possible minds had the same preferences, then it would be subjective nonrelative, wouldn't it?

Comment author: thomblake 29 April 2010 02:08:37PM 0 points [-]

EDIT: but if you thought all possible minds had the same preferences, then it would be subjective nonrelative, wouldn't it?

Maybe, though in that unlikely event I would suspect that there's some universal law behind that odd fact about preferences, in which case I'd think it would be objective.

Comment author: thomblake 29 April 2010 02:00:01PM 0 points [-]

Well I'm not sure we need to consider merely logically possible minds, and it's logically possible that non-human minds are physically impossible.

Comment author: RobinZ 29 April 2010 02:19:04PM 0 points [-]

Only in the sense that it logically possible that travel to Mars is physically impossible. The wording is deceptive.

Comment author: thomblake 29 April 2010 02:41:11PM 0 points [-]

I'm not sure what sense you're referring to, or what you're comparing it to, or how it's deceptive.

Comment author: RobinZ 29 April 2010 02:46:39PM *  0 points [-]
Comment author: Matt_Simpson 28 April 2010 10:11:08PM 0 points [-]

well then, I'm just not imaginative enough!

Comment author: thomblake 28 April 2010 10:13:56PM 2 points [-]

Once you've had to argue about ethics with logicians, it becomes natural. "But what if... (completely implausible hypothesis that no one believes)" comes up a lot.