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Welcome!
Impressive. I've been here for over a year and I still haven't finished all of them.
I'm curious — if someone invented a pill that exactly simulated the feeling of helping people, would you switch to taking that pill instead of actually helping people?
Thanks! My friends thought I was crazy (well, they probably already did and still do), but once I firmly decided to get through the Sequences, I really almost didn't do anything else while I wasn't either in class, taking an exam, or taking care of biological needs like food (having a body is such a liability!).
No, because helping people has real effects that benefit everyone. There's a reason I'm more inclined to help my friends than strangers - I can count on them to help me in return (this is still true of strangers, but less directly - people who live in a society of helpful people are more likely to be helpful!). This is especially true of friends who know more about certain things than I do - many of my friends are constantly teaching each other (and me) the things they know best, and we all know a lot more as a result... but it won't work if I decide I don't want to teach anyone anything.
I think there are few humans who don't genuinely care more about themselves their friends and family than people in general.
Personally I find the idea that I should prefer the death of say, my own little sister, to two or three or four random little girls absurd. I suspect even when it comes to one's own life people are hopelessly muddled on what they really want and their answers don't correlate too well with actions. A better way to get an estimate of what a person is likley to do, is to ask them what fraction of people would sacrifice their lives to save the lives of N (small positive integer) other random people.
It's even more complicated than that. If I see a few strangers in immediate, unambiguous danger, I'm pretty sure I will die to save them. But I will not spend all that much on donating to a charity that will save these same people, twenty years later and two thousand miles away. (...what was that about altruistic ideals being Far?)
Excellent point.