I agree, it seems a more general way of putting it.
Anyway, now that you mention it I’m intrigued and slightly freaked out by a scenario in which my frame of reference changes without my current values changing. First, is it even knowable when it happens? All our reasoning is based on current values. If an alien race comes and modifies us in a way that our future moral progress changes but not our current values, we could never know the change happened at all. It is a type of value loss that preserves reflective consistency. I mean, we wouldn’t agree to be changed to paperclippers but on what basis could we refuse an unspecified change to our moral frame of reference (leaving current values intact)?
I’m not sure I understand this talk of “moral frames of reference” vs simply “values”.
But would an analogy to frame change be theory change? As when we replace Newton’s theory of gravity with Einstein’s theory, leaving the vast majority of theoretical predictions intact?
In this analogy, we might make the change (in theory or moral frame) because we encounter new information (new astronomical or moral facts) that impel the change. Or, we might change for the same reason we might change from the Copenhagen interpretation to MWI—it seems to work just as well, but has greater elegance.
I’m not sure I understand this talk of “moral frames of reference” vs simply “values”.
By analogy, take a complicated program as “frame of reference”, and state of knowledge about what it outputs “current values”. As you learn more, “current values” change, but frame of reference, defining the subject matter, stays the same and determines the direction of discovering more precise “current values”.
Note that the exact output may well be unknowable in its explicit form, but “frame of reference” says precisely what it is. Compare with infinite mathematical structures that can never be seen “explicitly”, but with the laws of correct reasoning about them perfectly defined.
As you learn more, “current values” change, but frame of reference, defining the subject matter, stays the same and determines the direction of discovering more precise “current values”.
Is there potential divergence of “current values” in this analogy (or in your model of morality)?
Moral frame of reference determines the direction in exploration of values, but you can’t explicitly know this direction, even if you know its definition, because otherwise you’d already be there. It’s like with definition of action in ambient control. When definition is changed, you have no reason to expect that the defined thing remains the same, even though at that very moment your state of knowledge about the previous definition might happen to coincide with your state of knowledge about the new definition. And then the states of knowledge go their different ways.
I agree, it seems a more general way of putting it.
Anyway, now that you mention it I’m intrigued and slightly freaked out by a scenario in which my frame of reference changes without my current values changing. First, is it even knowable when it happens? All our reasoning is based on current values. If an alien race comes and modifies us in a way that our future moral progress changes but not our current values, we could never know the change happened at all. It is a type of value loss that preserves reflective consistency. I mean, we wouldn’t agree to be changed to paperclippers but on what basis could we refuse an unspecified change to our moral frame of reference (leaving current values intact)?
I’m not sure I understand this talk of “moral frames of reference” vs simply “values”.
But would an analogy to frame change be theory change? As when we replace Newton’s theory of gravity with Einstein’s theory, leaving the vast majority of theoretical predictions intact?
In this analogy, we might make the change (in theory or moral frame) because we encounter new information (new astronomical or moral facts) that impel the change. Or, we might change for the same reason we might change from the Copenhagen interpretation to MWI—it seems to work just as well, but has greater elegance.
By analogy, take a complicated program as “frame of reference”, and state of knowledge about what it outputs “current values”. As you learn more, “current values” change, but frame of reference, defining the subject matter, stays the same and determines the direction of discovering more precise “current values”.
Note that the exact output may well be unknowable in its explicit form, but “frame of reference” says precisely what it is. Compare with infinite mathematical structures that can never be seen “explicitly”, but with the laws of correct reasoning about them perfectly defined.
Is there potential divergence of “current values” in this analogy (or in your model of morality)?
Moral frame of reference determines the direction in exploration of values, but you can’t explicitly know this direction, even if you know its definition, because otherwise you’d already be there. It’s like with definition of action in ambient control. When definition is changed, you have no reason to expect that the defined thing remains the same, even though at that very moment your state of knowledge about the previous definition might happen to coincide with your state of knowledge about the new definition. And then the states of knowledge go their different ways.