As I wrote in a commentary on Gwern’s “The Narrowing Circle”, respect for ancestors is probably justified in some sort of acausal-negotiation sense, even if (as commenters Richard Kennaway and Dagon feel) we don’t actually care about their values:
A drop in respect for ancestors might also directly cause a drop in concern for descendants—it might be logical to disregard the lives of future generations if we assume that they (just like us) will ignore the wishes of their ancestors!
Consider: it’s certainly important that we somewhat respect the financial wishes of the dead (trusts, foundations, inheritance, etc) rather than (as might seem logical at first glance) confiscating all their assets upon death. This is because being able to pass on wealth and create a durable legacy (like the Rockefeller Foundation or etc) is part of what motivates people to earn and invest for the future in the first place.
By a similar logic, it might be important that we should also commit to respecting the cultural wishes of the dead, in order to somehow motivate people to take a more long-term outlook. As an off-the-cuff example, maybe a culture that emphasized respect for ancestors would be higher-fertility, since parents would know that their children would be more likely to carry forward their values than in today’s no-respect-for-past-generations culture.
I think this reasoning is not truly acausal; if my kids weren’t watching my behavior, I wouldn’t expect how I treat my elders to affect my descendants’ behavior towards me at all.
As I wrote in a commentary on Gwern’s “The Narrowing Circle”, respect for ancestors is probably justified in some sort of acausal-negotiation sense, even if (as commenters Richard Kennaway and Dagon feel) we don’t actually care about their values:
Consider: it’s certainly important that we somewhat respect the financial wishes of the dead (trusts, foundations, inheritance, etc) rather than (as might seem logical at first glance) confiscating all their assets upon death. This is because being able to pass on wealth and create a durable legacy (like the Rockefeller Foundation or etc) is part of what motivates people to earn and invest for the future in the first place.
By a similar logic, it might be important that we should also commit to respecting the cultural wishes of the dead, in order to somehow motivate people to take a more long-term outlook. As an off-the-cuff example, maybe a culture that emphasized respect for ancestors would be higher-fertility, since parents would know that their children would be more likely to carry forward their values than in today’s no-respect-for-past-generations culture.
I think this reasoning is not truly acausal; if my kids weren’t watching my behavior, I wouldn’t expect how I treat my elders to affect my descendants’ behavior towards me at all.