Eliezer: I’m finding this one hard, because I’m not sure what it would mean for you to convince me that nothing was right. Since my current ethics system goes something like, “All morality is arbitrary, there’s nothing that’s right-in-the-abstract or wrong-in-the-abstract, so I might as well try to make myself as happy as possible,” I’m not sure what you’re convincing me of—that there’s no particular reason to believe that I should make myself happy? But I already believe that. I’ve chosen to try to be happy, but I don’t think there’s a good ‘reason’ for it.
On the other hand, maybe I right now am the end result you’re looking for. In which case, yes, I do tip cabdrivers; no, I don’t cheat; and usually I’d pull the kid off, if there weren’t much risk to me.
Eliezer: I’m finding this one hard, because I’m not sure what it would mean for you to convince me that nothing was right. Since my current ethics system goes something like, “All morality is arbitrary, there’s nothing that’s right-in-the-abstract or wrong-in-the-abstract, so I might as well try to make myself as happy as possible,” I’m not sure what you’re convincing me of—that there’s no particular reason to believe that I should make myself happy? But I already believe that. I’ve chosen to try to be happy, but I don’t think there’s a good ‘reason’ for it.
On the other hand, maybe I right now am the end result you’re looking for. In which case, yes, I do tip cabdrivers; no, I don’t cheat; and usually I’d pull the kid off, if there weren’t much risk to me.