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This was a fun read. Reminds me of Terry Bisson's "They're made out of meat."
Preventing suffering is what I care about, and I'm going to try to convince other people to care about it. One way to do that is to invent plausible thought experiments / intuition pumps for why it matters so much. If I do, that might help with evangelism, but it's not the (original) reason why I care about it. I care about it because of experience with suffering in my own life, feeling strong empathy when seeing it in others, and feeling that preventing suffering is overridingly important due to various other factors in my development.
Thanks, Brian. I know this is your position, I'm wondering if it's benthamite's as well.
When I become directly acquainted with an episode of intense suffering, I come to see that this is a state of affairs that ought not to exist. My empathy may be limited, but I don't need to empathize with others to recognize that, when they suffer, their suffering ought to be relieved too.
I don't pretend to speak on behalf of all other hedonistic utilitarians, however. Brian himself would probably disagree with my answer. He would instead reply that he "just cares" about other people's suffering, and that's that.
Knowing that you've abandoned moral realism, how would you respond to someone making an analogous argument about preferences or duties? For instance, "When a preference of mine is frustrated, I come to see this as a state of affairs that ought not to exist," or "When someone violates a duty, I come to see this as a state of affairs that ought not to exist." Granted, the acquaintance may not be as direct as in the case of intense suffering. But is that enough to single out pleasure and suffering?
In response to
Outline of Possible Sources of Values
I find the title a bit confusing. To me it seems a better one would be "Outline of Possible Sources of Knowledge of Values." Or am I misunderstanding you?
I am curious about the qualifier "pre-1980." Do you think later work in these disciplines is noticeably better?
In response to
Desired articles on AI risk?
"What Would AIXI Do With Infinite Computing Power and a Halting Oracle?"
Is this problem well-posed? Doesn't the answer depend completely on the reward function?
In response to
Rationality Quotes November 2012
The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.
Paul Valéry
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Logging progress improving conscientiousness and overcoming procrastination at LessWrong
That would require some way to quantify progress. Thoughts on how to do that?
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Logging progress improving conscientiousness and overcoming procrastination at LessWrong
You could estimate the amount of time spent procrastinating. If you're at a computer, RescueTime or similar software might help you do that. You could also try to count how often you feel like procrastinating, and how often you actually do procrastinate. Of course, this might be tricky to do accurately.
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Saeid Fard
Indeed, even this quote is way below 140 characters :-)
By the way, you're off by a year: the February 2013 thread is here.