Sympathy is only relevant to social entities—but why not create solitary ones as well?
A creature that loves solitude might not necessarily be bad to create. But it would still be good to give it capacity for sympathy for pragmatic reasons, to ensure that if it ever did meet another creature it would want to treat it kindly and avoid harming it.
As for boredom, what makes a population of entities that seek variety in their lives better than one of entities who each have highly specialized interests (all different from each other)? As a whole, wouldn’t the latter display more variation than the former?
It’s not about having a specialized interest and exploring it. A creature with no concept of boredom would would, (to paraphrase Eliezer), “play the same screen of the same level of the same fun videogame over and over again.” They wouldn’t be like an autistic savant who knows one subject inside and out. They’d be little better than a wirehead. Someone with narrow interests still explores every single aspect of that interest in great detail. A creature with no boredom would find one tiny aspect of that interest and do it forever.
Or how about creating psychopaths and putting them in controlled environments that they can destroy at will, or creating highly violent entities to throw in fighting pits? Isn’t there a point where this is preferable to creating yet another conscious creature capable of sympathy and boredom?
Yes, I concede that if there is a sufficient quantity of creatures with humane values, it might be good to create other types of creatures for variety’s sake. However, such creatures could be potentially dangerous, we’d have to be very careful.
A creature that loves solitude might not necessarily be bad to create. But it would still be good to give it capacity for sympathy for pragmatic reasons, to ensure that if it ever did meet another creature it would want to treat it kindly and avoid harming it.
Fair enough, though at the level of omnipotence we’re supposing, there would be no chance meetups. You might as well just isolate the creature and be done with it.
A creature with no concept of boredom would would, (to paraphrase Eliezer), “play the same screen of the same level of the same fun videogame over and over again.”
Or it would do it once, and then die happy. Human-like entities might have a lifespan of centuries, and then you would have ephemeral beings living their own limited fantasy for thirty seconds. I mean, why not? We are all bound to repeat ourselves once our interests are exhausted—perhaps entities could be made to embrace death when that happens.
Yes, I concede that if there is a sufficient quantity of creatures with humane values, it might be good to create other types of creatures for variety’s sake. However, such creatures could be potentially dangerous, we’d have to be very careful.
I agree, though an entity with the power to choose the kind of creatures that come to exist probably wouldn’t have much difficulty doing it safely.
A creature that loves solitude might not necessarily be bad to create. But it would still be good to give it capacity for sympathy for pragmatic reasons, to ensure that if it ever did meet another creature it would want to treat it kindly and avoid harming it.
It’s not about having a specialized interest and exploring it. A creature with no concept of boredom would would, (to paraphrase Eliezer), “play the same screen of the same level of the same fun videogame over and over again.” They wouldn’t be like an autistic savant who knows one subject inside and out. They’d be little better than a wirehead. Someone with narrow interests still explores every single aspect of that interest in great detail. A creature with no boredom would find one tiny aspect of that interest and do it forever.
Yes, I concede that if there is a sufficient quantity of creatures with humane values, it might be good to create other types of creatures for variety’s sake. However, such creatures could be potentially dangerous, we’d have to be very careful.
Fair enough, though at the level of omnipotence we’re supposing, there would be no chance meetups. You might as well just isolate the creature and be done with it.
Or it would do it once, and then die happy. Human-like entities might have a lifespan of centuries, and then you would have ephemeral beings living their own limited fantasy for thirty seconds. I mean, why not? We are all bound to repeat ourselves once our interests are exhausted—perhaps entities could be made to embrace death when that happens.
I agree, though an entity with the power to choose the kind of creatures that come to exist probably wouldn’t have much difficulty doing it safely.