FWIW, I agree that rationality (or any other value) can benefit from being densely concentrated rather than diffuse, which seems to be what you’re getting at here.
To say that a little differently: consider a cognitive system S, comprising various cognitive agents. Let us label Sv the set of agents that are aligned with value V, and Snv the set of agents that oppose V. If I draw a graph of all the agents in S, how they interact with one another, and how strong the connections between them are, and I find that Sv has strong intra-set connections and weak inter-set connections with Snv, I expect S’s judgments and behaviors to be more aligned with V than if Sv has weak intra-set connections and strong inter-set connections with Snv.
I just don’t think it matters very much whether those connections are between-mind connections or within-mind connections. It matters enormously in the real world, because within-mind connections are much, much stronger than between-mind connections. But the whole point of telepathy is to make that less true.
And I think it matters even less where the label “Dave” gets attached within S, though in practice in the real world I tend to attach that label to a “virtual node” that represents the consensus view of the set of agents instantiated in my brain, thanks to that same within/between distinction. And again, telepathy makes that distinction less important, so where “Dave” gets attached within S is less clearly defined… and continues not to matter much.
Yes, it’s about concentration. I imagine that some things are multiplicative, for example traits like “learns a lot about X” and “spends a lot of time doing X” give better output if they happen to be the traits of the same person (as opposed to one person who learns a lot but does nothing, and another person who does it a lot but doesn’t understand it).
It’s not just about agents, but about resources like memory. I don’t know how well and how fast could the telepaths use each other’s memory, or habits, or mental associations, or things like this. Seems more efficient if “caring about X” and “remembering many facts about X” are in the same person, otherwise there are communication costs.
I don’t know how well and how fast could the telepaths use each other’s memory, or habits, or mental associations, or things like this.
Sure. To the degree that I assume that telepathy does not successfully bridge the distance between minds, such that between-mind operations remain less efficient than within-mind operations, then I agree with you… in that case, a telepathic society is more like the real world, where minds are separate from one another, and the between/within mind distinction matters more.
But (for me) the important issue is the degree of internode connectivity. Whether those nodes are in one mind or two is merely an engineering detail.
traits like “learns a lot about X” and “spends a lot of time doing X” give better output if they happen to be the traits of the same person (as opposed to one person who learns a lot but does nothing, and another person who does it a lot but doesn’t understand it).
Similarly to the above, I agree completely that they give better output if they are tightly linked than if they are loosely linked or not linked at all. I would say that whether this tight linkage occurs within one person or not doesn’t matter, though. Again, in the real world we can’t separate them, because tight linkage between two people is not possible (I can’t use your knowledge to do things), and if telepathy doesn’t help us do this then we also can’t separate them in the OP’s hypothetical.
FWIW, I agree that rationality (or any other value) can benefit from being densely concentrated rather than diffuse, which seems to be what you’re getting at here.
To say that a little differently: consider a cognitive system S, comprising various cognitive agents. Let us label Sv the set of agents that are aligned with value V, and Snv the set of agents that oppose V. If I draw a graph of all the agents in S, how they interact with one another, and how strong the connections between them are, and I find that Sv has strong intra-set connections and weak inter-set connections with Snv, I expect S’s judgments and behaviors to be more aligned with V than if Sv has weak intra-set connections and strong inter-set connections with Snv.
I just don’t think it matters very much whether those connections are between-mind connections or within-mind connections. It matters enormously in the real world, because within-mind connections are much, much stronger than between-mind connections. But the whole point of telepathy is to make that less true.
And I think it matters even less where the label “Dave” gets attached within S, though in practice in the real world I tend to attach that label to a “virtual node” that represents the consensus view of the set of agents instantiated in my brain, thanks to that same within/between distinction. And again, telepathy makes that distinction less important, so where “Dave” gets attached within S is less clearly defined… and continues not to matter much.
Yes, it’s about concentration. I imagine that some things are multiplicative, for example traits like “learns a lot about X” and “spends a lot of time doing X” give better output if they happen to be the traits of the same person (as opposed to one person who learns a lot but does nothing, and another person who does it a lot but doesn’t understand it).
It’s not just about agents, but about resources like memory. I don’t know how well and how fast could the telepaths use each other’s memory, or habits, or mental associations, or things like this. Seems more efficient if “caring about X” and “remembering many facts about X” are in the same person, otherwise there are communication costs.
Sure. To the degree that I assume that telepathy does not successfully bridge the distance between minds, such that between-mind operations remain less efficient than within-mind operations, then I agree with you… in that case, a telepathic society is more like the real world, where minds are separate from one another, and the between/within mind distinction matters more.
But (for me) the important issue is the degree of internode connectivity. Whether those nodes are in one mind or two is merely an engineering detail.
Similarly to the above, I agree completely that they give better output if they are tightly linked than if they are loosely linked or not linked at all. I would say that whether this tight linkage occurs within one person or not doesn’t matter, though. Again, in the real world we can’t separate them, because tight linkage between two people is not possible (I can’t use your knowledge to do things), and if telepathy doesn’t help us do this then we also can’t separate them in the OP’s hypothetical.