Integrating the values of the Baby-eaters would be a mistake. Doing so with, say, Middle-Earth’s dwarves, Star Trek’s Vulcans, or GEICO’s Cavemen doesn’t seem like it would have the same world-shattering implications.
Reading “integrate the values...” in this thread caused my brain to start trying to do very strange math. Like, “Shouldn’t it be ‘integrate over’?” “How does one integrate over a value?” “What’s the value of a human child?”
We also typically don’t integrate the values of all other adult humans—instead we assign weights to their values, strongly correlated with their distance from our own values.
People don’t practice humanity-wide CEV. We have multiculturalism—agreements not to influence each other’s values excessively—but not “value trading” where each side agrees to change their values towards the mean. (Many people / cultures like to pretend that values cannot or should not be deliberately changed at all.) I don’t have a firm opinion on how much of this is cultural, accidental, or liable to change in the near future.
The closer their values are to ours, the smaller the upset of integration; but for this very reason, the value of integration and the need to integrate may also be smaller
This is not a logical truth, of course, but it is often true. For instance, in the original story, the need to integrate was directly proportional to the difference between the human and Babyeater (or Superhappy and Babyeater) values.
I don’t think it’s possible to integrate core Babyeater values into our society as it is now. I also don’t think it’s possible to integrate core human values into Babyeater society. Integration could only be done by force and would necessarily cause violence to at least one of the cultures, if not both.
Integrating the values of the Baby-eaters would be a mistake. Doing so with, say, Middle-Earth’s dwarves, Star Trek’s Vulcans, or GEICO’s Cavemen doesn’t seem like it would have the same world-shattering implications.
It would be a mistake if you don’t integrate ALL baby eaters, including the little ones.
Do we typically integrate the values of human children?
It seems we don’t.
Reading “integrate the values...” in this thread caused my brain to start trying to do very strange math. Like, “Shouldn’t it be ‘integrate over’?” “How does one integrate over a value?” “What’s the value of a human child?”
Very true…
We also typically don’t integrate the values of all other adult humans—instead we assign weights to their values, strongly correlated with their distance from our own values.
People don’t practice humanity-wide CEV. We have multiculturalism—agreements not to influence each other’s values excessively—but not “value trading” where each side agrees to change their values towards the mean. (Many people / cultures like to pretend that values cannot or should not be deliberately changed at all.) I don’t have a firm opinion on how much of this is cultural, accidental, or liable to change in the near future.
Indeed, this is presumably strongly selected for in the evolution of cultures...
The closer their values are to ours, the smaller the upset of integration; but for this very reason, the value of integration and the need to integrate may also be smaller
This is not a logical truth, of course, but it is often true. For instance, in the original story, the need to integrate was directly proportional to the difference between the human and Babyeater (or Superhappy and Babyeater) values.
I don’t think it’s possible to integrate core Babyeater values into our society as it is now. I also don’t think it’s possible to integrate core human values into Babyeater society. Integration could only be done by force and would necessarily cause violence to at least one of the cultures, if not both.