Larks comments on SUGGEST and VOTE: Posts We Want to Read on Less Wrong - Less Wrong

15 Post author: lukeprog 07 February 2011 02:51AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (102)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Larks 07 February 2011 05:06:11PM 1 point [-]

Suppose acting out of concern for the morality of my future selves was moral.

For a reductio, assume moral motive was sufficient for moral action. Suppose you self-modified yourself into a paperclipper, who believed it was moral to make paperclips. Now, post-modification you could be moral by making paperclips. Recognising this, your motive in self-modifying is to help your future self to act morally. Hence, by our Kantian assumption, the self-modification was moral. Hence it is moral to become a paperclipper!