PhilGoetz comments on Uncategories and empty categories - Less Wrong

16 Post author: PhilGoetz 16 February 2015 01:18AM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 17 February 2015 04:19:11AM 0 points [-]

These are values you consciously have. But the reason for all your values, if traced back far enough, lies in genetic fitness. Your not being conscious of that doesn't change it.

Comment author: tavaton 17 February 2015 05:10:31AM 2 points [-]

The cause of my having these values doesn't really make a difference to what my values are. The values I'm conscious of is all that matters to me. I have no moral or emotional commitment whatsoever to reproductive efficiency. That is not one of my values.

Comment author: EHeller 17 February 2015 06:09:46AM 0 points [-]

Evolution is a super slow optimization process, and the environment changes. I'm equally "genetically fit" (i.e. I was born to survivors) to any thing alive today, but have a very different goal set.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 17 February 2015 12:37:26PM 0 points [-]

But the reason for all your values, if traced back far enough, lies in genetic fitness. Your not being conscious of that doesn't change it.

But the reason for all your values, if traced back far enough, lies in atoms. Your not being conscious of that doesn't change it.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 17 February 2015 05:40:08PM *  0 points [-]

Atoms don't influence the evolution of a species or its values in any particular direction. The system we're looking at is bounded at "the bottom" by selection.