cabalamat comments on The Craft and the Community - Less Wrong

27 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 26 April 2009 05:52PM

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Comment author: SirBacon 26 April 2009 08:03:33PM 9 points [-]

"...then there's the idea that rationalists should be able to (a) solve group coordination problems, (b) care a lot about other people and (c) win..."

Why should rationalists necessarily care a lot about other people? If we are to avoid circular altruism and the nefarious effects of other-optimizing, the best amount of caring might be less than "a lot."

Additionally, caring about other people in the sense of seeking emotional gratification primarily in tribe-like social rituals may be truly inimical to dedicating one's life to theoretical physics, math, or any other far-thinking discipline.

Caring about other people may entail involvement in politics, and local politics can be just as mind-killing as national politics.

Comment author: cabalamat 28 April 2009 03:08:51AM 1 point [-]

Why should rationalists necessarily care a lot about other people?

They shouldn't, particularly. End goals are not a part of rationality, rationality exists to achieve them.

However, many end goals can be more easily achieved by getting help from others. If your end goals are like this, it's rational for you to solve group coordination problems and care about other people.