I'm not sure I understand this talk of "moral frames of reference" vs simply "values".
By analogy, take a complicated program as "frame of reference", and state of knowledge about what it outputs "current values". As you learn more, "current values" change, but frame of reference, defining the subject matter, stays the same and determines the direction of discovering more precise "current values".
Note that the exact output may well be unknowable in its explicit form, but "frame of reference" says precisely what it is. Compare with infinite mathematical structures that can never be seen "explicitly", but with the laws of correct reasoning about them perfectly defined.
As you learn more, "current values" change, but frame of reference, defining the subject matter, stays the same and determines the direction of discovering more precise "current values".
Is there potential divergence of "current values" in this analogy (or in your model of morality)?
Ben Goertzel:
Robin Hanson:
We all know the problem with deathism: a strong belief that death is almost impossible to avoid, clashing with undesirability of the outcome, leads people to rationalize either the illusory nature of death (afterlife memes), or desirability of death (deathism proper). But of course the claims are separate, and shouldn't influence each other.
Change in values of the future agents, however sudden of gradual, means that the Future (the whole freackin' Future!) won't be optimized according to our values, won't be anywhere as good as it could've been otherwise. It's easier to see a sudden change as morally relevant, and easier to rationalize gradual development as morally "business as usual", but if we look at the end result, the risks of value drift are the same. And it is difficult to make it so that the future is optimized: to stop uncontrolled "evolution" of value (value drift) or recover more of astronomical waste.
Regardless of difficulty of the challenge, it's NOT OK to lose the Future. The loss might prove impossible to avert, but still it's not OK, the value judgment cares not for feasibility of its desire. Let's not succumb to the deathist pattern and lose the battle before it's done. Have the courage and rationality to admit that the loss is real, even if it's too great for mere human emotions to express.