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steven0461 comments on LW was started to help altruists - Less Wrong
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Comments (34)
If altruism is true then much of the effort of egoists is wasted and vice versa, but for some reason we never discuss the question.
I'm not sure here what you mean by 'true.' One or the other may be more optimal in terms of maximizing a given utility function, but I doubt that the same answer optimizes all utility functions (so we should consider such on a case by case basis.)
Yes, I should have been more careful and allowed for the possibility of fundamentally divergent values, but I'd be surprised if a substantial part of all the considerations that go into the question weren't shared across people.
We do discuss the question sometimes (e.g. limitations of utilitarianism, personal identity, time discounting are all relevant to figuring out the truth of egoistic values). But I agree that egoism/altruism question having an actual answer which methods of rationality should help to find is one of the major blank spots of this post.
I always assumed that altruists are aiming for a different region in the space of all possible configurations of the future light cone than egoists are, but maybe I need to examine that assumption.
I think that these converge in at least some cases. For example, an egoist wanting to live a really long time might work on reducing existential risks because it's the most effective way of ensuring that he wakes up from being frozen. An altruist might work on reducing existential risks because he wants to save (other) people, not just himself.
They do act on conflicting explicit reasons (to some small extent), but I don't expect they should.
Lets discuss it then. I disagree with your claim.
According to the folk who promote egoism, much of the effort of egoists is devoted to finding out what everyone else wants, and then satisfying those desires (for a price). Admittedly, that is partly self-serving mythology, but it is probably closer to the truth than the myths that altruists spin about themselves.
Similarly, egoists are likely to approve of people seeking warm-and-fuzzies as much as they approve of people seeking sexual gratification. Egoists have no problem with the values pursued by altruists - they only get annoyed when altruists band together to push their values onto others.
Can you think of an empirical test to decide the issue?