wedrifid comments on Stanislav Petrov Day - Less Wrong

35 Post author: gwern 26 September 2011 02:49PM

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Comment author: wedrifid 28 September 2011 08:54:23PM -1 points [-]

If you mean, say, that high biodiversity is good in its own right (or at least good for some reason not dependent on humans), then that's fine; please confirm or say instead what you do mean.

High biodiversity is a necessary but not sufficient component of what it means for 'the environment' to be in a state labeled commonly referred to as 'good'. Other requirements are that it maintains many or most of those things which are aesthetically or ideologically pleasing and that these things for most part exist in relatively stable equilibrium. Note that 'aesthetically pleasing' does not constitute a reference to local human preferences but rather refers to another fuzzy concept that has its own inherent meaning.

Concepts like "good for the environment" represent a lot of information but given that most people within the same subculture will understand what you mean when you use them they serve their intended purpose well.

Obviously, your values may differ.

Yes. And my philosophy of knowledge.

Comment author: TobyBartels 29 September 2011 08:20:14AM 4 points [-]

H'm, now it sounds like by "good for the environment" you didn't necessarily mean anything that you would consider good for anything at all, but just what a fairly unreflective person off of the street would mean by "good for the environment" in that context. In that case, I agree that the absence of humanity would be "good for the environment", although I don't particularly care what's "good for the environment", which is merely an instrumental value that would largely no longer apply. (That's just me, however.)

So thanks for explaining!

Comment author: wedrifid 29 September 2011 05:28:32PM 0 points [-]

H'm, now it sounds like by "good for the environment" you didn't necessarily mean anything that you would consider good for anything at all, but just what a fairly unreflective person off of the street would mean by "good for the environment"

I cannot accept that as representative of my position.

Comment author: TobyBartels 03 October 2011 03:24:44AM 1 point [-]

You don't seem to be very interested in explaining your position, so I'll just drop it now.