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MugaSofer comments on Is a paperclipper better than nothing? - Less Wrong Discussion
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Well, I guess it comes down to the evolutionary niches that produce intelligence and morality, doesn't it? There doesn't seem to be any single widely-accepted answer for either of them, although there are plenty of theories, some of which overlap, some don't.
Then again, we don't even know how different they would be biologically, so I'm unwilling to make any confidant pronouncement myself, other than professing skepticism for particularly extreme ends of the scale. (Aliens would be humanoid because only humans evolved intelligence!)
Anyway, do you think the arguments for your position are, well, strong? Referring to it as an "opinion" suggests not, but also suggests the arguments for the other side must be similarly weak, right? So maybe you could write about that.
I appeal to (1) the consideration of whether inter-translatability of science, and valuing of certain theories over others, depends on the initial conditions of civilization that develops it. (2) Universality of decision-theoretic and game-theoretic situations. (3) Evolutionary value of versatility hinting at evolved value of diversity.
Not sure what 1 and 3 refer to, but 2 is conditional on a specific theory of origin for morality, right? A plausible one, to be sure, but by no means settled or demonstrated.
My point is that the origin of values, the initial conditions, is not the sole criterion for determining whether a culture appreciates given values. There can be convergence or "discovery" of values.
Oh, do you mean that even quite alien beings might want to deal with us?
No, I mean that we might give a shit even about quite alien beings.