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Larks comments on SUGGEST and VOTE: Posts We Want to Read on Less Wrong - Less Wrong Discussion

15 Post author: lukeprog 07 February 2011 02:51AM

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Comment author: Larks 07 February 2011 05:06:11PM 1 point [-]

Suppose acting out of concern for the morality of my future selves was moral.

For a reductio, assume moral motive was sufficient for moral action. Suppose you self-modified yourself into a paperclipper, who believed it was moral to make paperclips. Now, post-modification you could be moral by making paperclips. Recognising this, your motive in self-modifying is to help your future self to act morally. Hence, by our Kantian assumption, the self-modification was moral. Hence it is moral to become a paperclipper!