It comes down to “I value this human over that other human” being a part of your utility function, f(this.human) > f(that.human). [Syntactical overloading for comedic relief] A bias is something affecting your cognition—how you process information, not what actions you choose based upon that processing. While you can say “your values are biased towards X”, that is using the term in a different than the usual LW context.
In particular, I doubt you’ll find more than 1 in a million humans who would not value some close relative’s / friend’s / known person’s life over a randomly picked human life (“It could be anything! It could even be another boat!”).
You have here a major, major part of the utility function of a majority of humans (throughout history! in-group > out-group), yet you persist on calling that an evil bias. Why, because it does not fit with what the “standard human values” should be? What god intended? Or is there no religious element to your position at all? If so, please clarify.
You realize that most humans value eating meat, right? Best pick up that habit, no? ;)
I really don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they value eating meat, even if only as an instrumental means for valuing tastiness and healthiness. Even beyond eating meat, it appears that a significant subset of humans (perhaps most?) enjoy hunting animals, suggesting that could be a value up for consideration.
And even if they do a tradeoff between the value of eating meat and the value of not inflicting suffering, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the value of eating meat. Policy debates should not appear one-sided.
You’re talking about humans alive today? Or all humans who’ve ever lived? I’d be extremely surprised if more than 50% of the former had hunted and enjoyed it. (And, considering that approximately half the humans are female, I would be somewhat surprised about the latter as well.)
So, by “enjoy hunting” I mean more “after going hunting, would enjoy it” than “have gone hunting and enjoyed it.” In particular, I suspect that a non-hunter’s opinion on hunting is probably not as predictive of their post-hunting experience as they would imagine that it would be. It is not clear to me if the percentage of women who would enjoy hunting is smaller than the percentage of men who would not.
In particular, I suspect that a non-hunter’s opinion on hunting is probably not as predictive of their post-hunting experience as they would imagine that it would be.
Be careful with that kind of arguments, for the same is probably true of heroin. (Yes, there are huge differences between hunting and heroin, but still...)
It comes down to “I value this human over that other human” being a part of your utility function, f(this.human) > f(that.human). [Syntactical overloading for comedic relief] A bias is something affecting your cognition—how you process information, not what actions you choose based upon that processing. While you can say “your values are biased towards X”, that is using the term in a different than the usual LW context.
In particular, I doubt you’ll find more than 1 in a million humans who would not value some close relative’s / friend’s / known person’s life over a randomly picked human life (“It could be anything! It could even be another boat!”).
You have here a major, major part of the utility function of a majority of humans (throughout history! in-group > out-group), yet you persist on calling that an evil bias. Why, because it does not fit with what the “standard human values” should be? What god intended? Or is there no religious element to your position at all? If so, please clarify.
You realize that most humans value eating meat, right? Best pick up that habit, no? ;)
I just realized I never replied to this. I definitely meant to. Must have accidentally closed the tab before clicking “comment”.
No. I believe they are mostly misinformed regarding animal intelligence and capacity for pain, conditions in slaughterhouses and farms etc.
[Edited as per Vaniver’s comment below]
I really don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they value eating meat, even if only as an instrumental means for valuing tastiness and healthiness. Even beyond eating meat, it appears that a significant subset of humans (perhaps most?) enjoy hunting animals, suggesting that could be a value up for consideration.
And even if they do a tradeoff between the value of eating meat and the value of not inflicting suffering, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the value of eating meat. Policy debates should not appear one-sided.
You’re talking about humans alive today? Or all humans who’ve ever lived? I’d be extremely surprised if more than 50% of the former had hunted and enjoyed it. (And, considering that approximately half the humans are female, I would be somewhat surprised about the latter as well.)
So, by “enjoy hunting” I mean more “after going hunting, would enjoy it” than “have gone hunting and enjoyed it.” In particular, I suspect that a non-hunter’s opinion on hunting is probably not as predictive of their post-hunting experience as they would imagine that it would be. It is not clear to me if the percentage of women who would enjoy hunting is smaller than the percentage of men who would not.
Be careful with that kind of arguments, for the same is probably true of heroin. (Yes, there are huge differences between hunting and heroin, but still...)
Dammit, I was literally about to remove that claim when you posted this :(