Jef_Allbright comments on Protected From Myself - Less Wrong

23 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 October 2008 12:09AM

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Comment author: Jef_Allbright 19 October 2008 07:14:52PM 0 points [-]

Russell: "ethics consists of hard-won wisdom from many lifetimes, which is how it is able to provide me with a safety rail against the pitfalls I have yet to encounter in my single lifetime."

Yes, generations of selection for "what works" encoded in terms of *principles* tends to outweigh assessment within the context of an individual agent in terms of *expected utility* -- to the extent that the present environment is representative of the environment of adaptation. To the extent it isn't, then the best one can do is rely on the increasing weight of principles perceived hierarchically as increasingly effective over increasing scope of consequences, e.g. action on the basis of the principle known as the "law of gravity" is a pretty certain bet.