Strange7 comments on The Design Space of Minds-In-General - Less Wrong

19 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 25 June 2008 06:37AM

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Comment author: TheOtherDave 26 January 2011 08:23:27PM 0 points [-]

I am skeptical about universal attractors in general, including but not limited to Buddhahood and domination. (Psychological ones, anyway. I suppose entropy is a universal attractor in some trivial sense.) I'm also inclined to doubt that anything is a stable choice, either in the sense you describe here, or in the sense of not palling after a time of experiencing it.

Of course, if human desires are editable, then anything can be a stable choice: just modify the person's desires such that they never want anything else. By the same token, anything can be a universal attractor: just modify everyone's desires so they choose it. These seem like uninteresting boundary cases.

I agree that some humans would, given the option, choose domination. I suspect that's <1% of the population given a range of options, though rather more if the choice is "dominate or be dominated." (Although I suspect most people would choose to try it out for a while, if that were an option, then would give it up in less than a year.)

I suspect about the same percentage would choose to be dominated as a long-term lifestyle choice, given the expectation that they can quit whenever they want.

I agree that some would choose autonomy, though again I suspect not that many (<5%, say) would choose it for any length of time.

I suspect the majority of humans would choose some form of interdependency, if that were an option.

Comment author: Strange7 29 January 2011 03:17:31AM -1 points [-]

I suppose entropy is a universal attractor in some trivial sense.

Entropy is the lack of an identifiable attractor.