There's a recent science fiction story that I can't recall the name of, in which the narrator is traveling somewhere via plane, and the security check includes a brain scan for deviance. The narrator is a pedophile. Everyone who sees the results of the scan is horrified--not that he's a pedophile, but that his particular brain abnormality is easily fixed, so that means he's chosen to remain a pedophile. He's closely monitored, so he'll never be able to act on those desires, but he keeps them anyway, because that's part of who he is.
What would you do in his place?
In the language of good old-fashioned AI, his pedophilia is a goal or a terminal value. "Fixing" him means changing or erasing that value. People here sometimes say that a rational agent should never change its terminal values. (If one goal is unobtainable, the agent will simply not pursue that goal.) Why, then, can we imagine the man being tempted to do so? Would it be a failure of rationality?
If the answer is that one terminal value can rationally set a goal to change another terminal value, then either
- any terminal value of a rational agent can change, or
- we need another word for the really terminal values that can't be changed rationally, and a way of identifying them, and a proof that they exist.
Well, as I said initially, I prefer to toss out all this "terminal value" stuff and just say that we have various values that depend on each other in various ways, but am willing to treat "terminal value" as an approximate term. So the possibility that X's valuation of sex with children actually depends on other things (e.g. his valuation of pleasure) doesn't seem at all problematic to me.
That said, if you'd rather start somewhere else, that's OK with me. On your account, when we say X is a pedophile, what do we mean? This whole example seems to depend on his pedophilia to make its point (though I'll admit I don't quite understand what that point is), so it seems helpful in discussing it to have a shared understanding of what it entails.
Regardless, wrt your last paragraph, I think a properly designed accompanying AI replies "There is a large set of possible future entities that include you in their history, and which subset is "really you" is a judgment each judge makes based on what that judge values most about you. I understand your condition to mean that you want to ensure that the future entity created by the modification preserves what you value most about yourself. Based on my analysis of your values, I've identified a set of potential self-modification options I expect you will endorse; let's review them."
Well, it probably doesn't actually say all of that.
Like other identities, it's a mish-mash of self-reporting, introspection (and extrospection of internal logic), value function extrapolation (from actions), and ability in a context to carry out the associated action. The value of this thought experiment is to suggest that the pedophile clearly thought that "being" a pedophile had something to do not with actually fulfilling his wants, but with wanting something in particular. He wants to want something, whether or not he gets it... (read more)