TimFreeman comments on Inferring Our Desires - Less Wrong

37 Post author: lukeprog 24 May 2011 05:33AM

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Comment author: TimFreeman 24 May 2011 08:29:42PM 2 points [-]

what if it's not space aliens, but an alien god [really evolution]?

Well, then its unlikely that your random unconscious actions have any ulterior motive as sophisticated as invading Moldova. Your true desires are probably just some combination of increasing your status, activities prone to make babies, and your conscious desires, assuming the conscious desires haven't been subverted by bad philosophy.

I don't see much harm in activities prone to make babies, so the real question here is "If I my unconscious desires lead me to have poor relationships because I'm gaming them for status, and I don't consciously value status, would I want to fix that by changing the unconscious desires?" I think I would, if I could be sure my income wouldn't be affected much, and the fix was well tested, preferably on other people.

But in any case, human volition is going to look like a clump of mud. It has a more-or-less well defined position, but not exactly, and the boundaries are unclear.