Virge: Why is it “not the point”? In this discussion we are talking about differences in moral computation as implemented within individual humans. That the blind idiot’s global optimization strategy defines homosexuality as a defect is of no relevance.
well because we’re trying to characterize the sort of psychological diversity that can exist within our species. And this psychological unity argument is saying “we’re all the same, except for a mix of one-step changes”. This means that any complex adaptation in any human is in almost all humans. The exceptions being: sexual dimorphism, and the fact that certain individuals are “defective”, in the sense that one of their complex adaptations is broken. So if you’re arguing against this position and saying: look at homosexuals, they are different but not broken, then you aren’t talking about the same kind of “broken”. I’m not arguing that we should make base any moral judgment on evolution’s silly ideas of what’s broken. I’m just arguing that homosexuals don’t serve as a counterexample to the idea of psychological unity.
Virge: I wasn’t claiming a complex adaptation. I was claiming “other computations that could exhibit a superficial unity, but with a broad spread.”
I think you’re right here. But hopefully the spread is not so much that we could not come to agree if we “knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, and had grown up farther together.”
An example that gives me hope that this could be true is Vengeance. We seem to be born with a terminal value saying that it is good to see our enemies suffer. In terms of explicit moral argument, if not in deeds, we have mostly come to agree that it is wrong to take vengeance; even though some of us came from cultures that once reveled in it; even though some of us may be more naturally inclined towards it.
When you do Bayesian updates, the specific values of your initial priors become less important as you gather more evidence. The evidence piles up exponentially, and you need exponentially bad priors to keep the wrong answer in the face of it. Perhaps our moral debates are similar. Perhaps the “broad spread” is not so great that we cannot come to agree, if we consider enough evidence, if we hear enough arguments. Psychological unity does not prove that this is so, but without psychological unity, there would be no reason to hope it is possible.
Virge: Why is it “not the point”? In this discussion we are talking about differences in moral computation as implemented within individual humans. That the blind idiot’s global optimization strategy defines homosexuality as a defect is of no relevance.
well because we’re trying to characterize the sort of psychological diversity that can exist within our species. And this psychological unity argument is saying “we’re all the same, except for a mix of one-step changes”. This means that any complex adaptation in any human is in almost all humans. The exceptions being: sexual dimorphism, and the fact that certain individuals are “defective”, in the sense that one of their complex adaptations is broken. So if you’re arguing against this position and saying: look at homosexuals, they are different but not broken, then you aren’t talking about the same kind of “broken”. I’m not arguing that we should make base any moral judgment on evolution’s silly ideas of what’s broken. I’m just arguing that homosexuals don’t serve as a counterexample to the idea of psychological unity.
Virge: I wasn’t claiming a complex adaptation. I was claiming “other computations that could exhibit a superficial unity, but with a broad spread.”
I think you’re right here. But hopefully the spread is not so much that we could not come to agree if we “knew more, thought faster, were more the people we wished we were, and had grown up farther together.”
An example that gives me hope that this could be true is Vengeance. We seem to be born with a terminal value saying that it is good to see our enemies suffer. In terms of explicit moral argument, if not in deeds, we have mostly come to agree that it is wrong to take vengeance; even though some of us came from cultures that once reveled in it; even though some of us may be more naturally inclined towards it.
When you do Bayesian updates, the specific values of your initial priors become less important as you gather more evidence. The evidence piles up exponentially, and you need exponentially bad priors to keep the wrong answer in the face of it. Perhaps our moral debates are similar. Perhaps the “broad spread” is not so great that we cannot come to agree, if we consider enough evidence, if we hear enough arguments. Psychological unity does not prove that this is so, but without psychological unity, there would be no reason to hope it is possible.