A little magnetic tampering with your amygdalas, and suddenly you are a wannabe serial killer.
How do you know?
People with amygdala damage are well represented in the serial killer population. there's a catch that people who become serial killers through these sorts of trauma frequently do not "want to" be serial killers, they just are. They find their own actions morally reprehensible. One place to look for cases like these is the Human Aggression lectures on Sapolsky's course on human behavioral biology. Probably Antonio Damasio has info in his giant brainscan database as well.
We are familiar with the thesis that Value is Fragile. This is why we are researching how to impart values to an AGI.
Embedded Minds are Fragile
Besides values, it may be worth remembering that human minds too are very fragile.
A little magnetic tampering with your amygdalas, and suddenly you are a wannabe serial killer. A small dose of LSD can get you to believe you can fly, or that the world will end in 4 hours. Remove part of your Ventromedial PreFrontal Cortex, and suddenly you are so utilitarian even Joshua Greene would call you a psycho.
It requires very little material change to substantially modify a human being's behavior. Same holds for other animals with embedded brains, crafted by evolution and made of squishy matter modulated by glands and molecular gates.
A Problem for Paul-Boxing and CEV?
One assumption underlying Paul-Boxing and CEV is that:
It is easier to specify and simulate a human-like mind then to impart values to an AGI by means of teaching it values directly via code or human language.
Usually we assume that because, as we know, value is fragile. But so are embedded minds. Very little tampering is required to profoundly transform people's moral intuitions. A large fraction of the inmate population in the US has frontal lobe or amygdala malfunctions.
Finding out the simplest description of a human brain that when simulated continues to act as that human brain would act in the real world may turn out to be as fragile, or even more fragile, than concept learning for AGI's.