Eugine_Nier comments on Open Thread: September 2011 - LessWrong

5 Post author: Pavitra 03 September 2011 07:50PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 04 September 2011 10:22:20AM 8 points [-]

We don't optimize for well-being, we optimize for what we (think we) want, which are two very different things.

Natural selection does not cease operation. Say, for example, that someone invents a box that fully reproduces in every respect the subjective experience of eating and of having eaten by directly stimulating the brain. Dieters would love this device. Here's a device that implements in extreme form the very danger that you fear. In this case, the specific danger is that you will stop eating and die.

So the question is, will the device wipe out the human race? Almost certainly it will not wipe out the entire human race, simply because there are enough people around who would nevertheless choose to eat despite the availability of the device, possibly because they make a conscious decision to do so. These people will be the survivors, and they will reproduce, and their children will have both their values (transmitted culturally) and their genes, and so will probably be particularly resistant to the device.

That's an extreme case. In the actual case, there are doubtless many people who are not adapting well to technological change. They will tend to die out disproportionately, will tend to reproduce disproportionately less.

We have a model of this future in today's addictive drugs. Some people are more resistant to the lure of addictive drugs than others. Some people's lives are destroyed as they pursue the unnatural bliss of drugs, but many people manage to avoid their fate.

Many people have so far managed the trick of pursuing super stimuli without destroying their lives in the process.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 07 September 2011 07:46:24AM 19 points [-]

Keep in mind, it's possible to evolve to extinction.

Comment author: smk 07 September 2011 02:36:02PM 0 points [-]

I wish I could upvote that more than once.

Comment author: wedrifid 07 September 2011 02:47:49PM 0 points [-]

The post or the comment? If the former then you just prompted me to vote it up for you. :)

Comment author: Will_Newsome 10 September 2011 05:09:42PM 3 points [-]

Me too. smk, your wish has been granted.