SaidAchmiz comments on 2014 Survey of Effective Altruists - Less Wrong

27 Post author: tog 05 May 2014 02:32AM

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Comment author: SaidAchmiz 07 May 2014 08:21:55AM 0 points [-]

(Assuming that we wish to choose one in the first place, of course - I do think that there is merit in just accepting that they're all flawed and then not choosing to endorse any single one.)

Well, that's been my policy so far, certainly. Some are worse than others, though. "This ethical framework breaks in catastrophic, horrifying fashion, creating an instant dystopia, as soon as we can rewire people's brains" is pretty darn bad.

Comment author: Fronken 07 May 2014 09:09:31AM 0 points [-]

... can't we rewire brains right now? We just ... don't.

Comment author: SaidAchmiz 07 May 2014 09:20:18AM *  2 points [-]

Well, we must not be hedonistic utilitarians then, right? Because if we were, and we could, we would.

Edit: Also, what the heck are you talking about?

Comment author: Fronken 03 July 2014 02:54:54PM *  -2 points [-]

Also, what the heck are you talking about?

Wireheading. The term is not a metaphor, and it's not a hypothetical. You can literally stick a wire into someone's pleasure centers and activate them, using only non-groundbreaking neuroscience.

It's been tested on humans, but AFAIK no-one has ever felt compelled to go any further.

(Yeah, seems like it might be evidence. But then, maybe akrasia...)

Comment author: SaidAchmiz 03 July 2014 05:30:05PM 0 points [-]

Where and what are these "pleasure centers", exactly?

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