Actually compassion evolved many different times as a central doctrine of all major spiritual traditions.
No, it evolved once, as part of mammalian biology. Show me a non-mammal intelligence that evolved compassion, and I’ll take that argument more seriously.
Also, why should we give a damn about “evolution” wants, when we can, in principle anyway, form a singleton and end evolution? Evolution is mindless. It doesn’t have a plan. It doesn’t have a purpose. It’s just what happens under certain conditions. If all life on Earth was destroyed by runaway self-replicating nanobots, then the nanobots would clearly be “fitter” than what they replaced, but I don’t see what that has to do with goodness.
No, it evolved once, as part of mammalian biology.
Sorry Crono, with a sample size of exactly one in regards to human level rationality you are setting the bar a little bit too high for me. However, considering how disconnected Zoroaster, Buddha, Lao Zi and Jesus where geographically and culturally I guess the evidence is as good as it gets for now.
Also, why should we give a damn about “evolution” wants, when we can, in principle anyway, form a singleton and end evolution?
The typical Bostromian reply again. There are plenty of other scholars who have an entirely different perspective on evolution than Bostrom. But beside that: you already do care, because if your (or your ancestors) violated the conditions of your existence (enjoying a particular type of food, a particular type of mate, feel pain when cut ect.) you would not even be here right now. I suggest you look up Dennet and his TED talk on Funny, Sexy Cute. Not everything about evolution is random: the mutation bit is, not that what happens to stick around though, since that has be meet the conditions of its existence.
What I am saying is very simple: being compassionate is one of these conditions of our existence and anyone failing to align itself will simply reduce its chances of making it—particularly in the very long run. I still have to finish my detailed response to Bostrom but you may want to read my writings on ‘rational spirituality’ and ‘freedom in the evolving universe’. Although you do not seem to assign a particularly high likelihood of gaining anything from doing that :-)
The typical Bostromian reply again. There are plenty of other scholars who have an entirely different perspective on evolution than Bostrom. But beside that:
“Besides that”? All you did was name a statement of a fairly obvious preference choice after one guy who happened to have it so that you could then drop it dismissively.
you already do care, because if your (or your ancestors) violated the conditions of your existence (enjoying a particular type of food, a particular type of mate, feel pain when cut ect.) you would not even be here right now.
No, he mightn’t care and I certainly don’t. I am glad I am here but I have no particular loyalty to evolution because of that. I know for sure that evolution feels no such loyalty to me and would discard both me and my species in time if it remained the dominant force of development.
I suggest you look up Dennet and his TED talk on Funny, Sexy Cute. Not everything about evolution is random: the mutation bit is, not that what happens to stick around though, since that has be meet the conditions of its existence.
CronDAS knows that. It’s obvious stuff for most in this audience. It just doesn’t mean what you think it means.
“Besides that”? All you did was name a statement of a fairly obvious preference choice after one guy who happened to have it so that you could then drop it dismissively.
Wedrifid, not sure what to tell you. Bostrom is but one voice and his evolutionary analysis is very much flawed—again: detailed critique upcoming.
No, he mightn’t care and I certainly don’t. I am glad I am here but I have no particular loyalty to evolution because of that. I know for sure that evolution feels no such loyalty to me and would discard both me and my species in time if it remained the dominant force of development.
Evolution is not the dominant force of development on the human level by a long shot, but it still very much draws the line in the sand in regards to what you can and can not do if you want to stick around in the long run. You don’t walk your 5′8″ of pink squishiness in front of a train for the exact same reason. And why don’t you? Because not doing that is a necessary condition for your continued existence. What other conditions are there? Maybe there are some that are less obvious then simply stopping to breath, failing to eat and avoiding hard, fast, shiny things? How about at the level of culture? Could it possibly be, that there are some ideas that are more conducive to the continued existence of their believers than others?
“It must not be forgotten that although a high standard of morality gives but a slight or no advantage to each individual man and his children over the other men of the same tribe, yet that an advancement in the standard of morality and in increase in the number of well-endowed men will certainly give an immense advantage to one tribe over another. There can be no doubt that a tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedienhce, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to give aid to each other and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over other tribes; and this would be natural selection.” (Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, p. 166)
How long do you think you can ignore evolutionary dynamics and get away with it before you have to get over your inertia and will be forced to align yourself to them by the laws of nature or perish? Just because you live in a time of extraordinary freedoms afforded to you by modern technology and are thus not aware that your ancestors walked a very particular path that brought you into existence certainly has nothing to do with the fact that they most certainly did. You do not believe that doing any random thing will get you what you want—so what leads you to believe that your existence does not depend on you making sure you stay within a comfortable margin of certainty in regards to being naturally selected? You are right in one thing: you are assured the benign indifference of the universe should you fail to wise up. I however would find that to be a terrible waste.
Please do not patronize me by trying to claim you know what I understand and don’t understand.
How long do you think you can ignore evolutionary dynamics and get away with it before you have to get over your inertia and will be forced to align yourself to them by the laws of nature or perish?
A literal answer was probably not what you were after but probably about 40 years, depending on when a general AI is created. After that it will not matter whether I conform my behaviour evolutionary dynamics as best I can or not. I will not be able to compete with a superintelligence no matter what I do. I’m just a glorified monkey. I can hold about 7 items in working memory, my processor is limited to the speed of neurons and my source code is not maintainable. My only plausible chance of survival is if someone manages to completely thwart evolutionary dynamics by creating a system that utterly dominates all competition and allows my survival because it happens to be programmed to do so.
Evolution created us. But it’ll also kill us unless we kill it first. Now is not the time to conform our values to the local minima of evolutionary competition. Our momentum has given us an unprecedented buffer of freedom for non-subsistence level work and we’ll either use that to ensure a desirable future or we will die.
Please do not patronize me by trying to claim you know what I understand and don’t understand.
I usually wouldn’t, I know it is annoying. In this case, however, my statement was intended as a rejection of your patronisation of CronDAS and I am quite comfortable with it as it stands.
A literal answer was probably not what you were after but probably about 40 years, depending on when a general AI is created.
Good one—but it reminds me about the religious fundies who see no reason to change anything about global warming because the rapture is just around the corner anyway :-)
Evolution created us. But it’ll also kill us unless we kill it first. Now is not the time to conform our values to the local minima of evolutionary competition. Our momentum has given us an unprecedented buffer of freedom for non-subsistence level work and we’ll either use that to ensure a desirable future or we will die.
Evolution is a force of nature so we won’t be able to ignore it forever, with or without AGI. I am not talking about local minima either—I want to get as close to the center of the optimal path as necessary to ensure having us around for a very long time with a very high likelihood.
I usually wouldn’t, I know it is annoying. In this case, however, my statement was intended as a rejection of your patronisation of CronDAS and I am quite comfortable with it as it stands.
Good one—but it reminds me about the religious fundies who see no reason to change anything about global warming because the rapture is just around the corner anyway :-)
Don’t forget the Y2K doomsday folks! ;)
Evolution is a force of nature so we won’t be able to ignore it forever, with or without AGI. I am not talking about local minima either—I want to get as close to the center of the optimal path as necessary to ensure having us around for a very long time with a very high likelihood.
Gravity is a force of nature too. It’s time to reach escape velocity before the planet is engulfed by a black hole.
Gravity is a force of nature too. It’s time to reach escape velocity before the planet is engulfed by a black hole.
Interesting analogy—it would be correct if we would call our alignment with evolutionary forces achieving escape velocity. What one is doing by resisting evolutionary pressures however is constant energy expenditure while failing to reach escape velocity. Like hovering a space shuttle at a constant altitude of 10 km: no matter how much energy you brig along, eventually the boosters will run out of fuel and the whole thing comes crushing down.
Interesting analogy—it would be correct if we would call our alignment with evolutionary forces achieving escape velocity.
I could almost agree with this so long as ‘obliterate any competitive threat then do whatever the hell we want including, as as desired, removing all need for death, reproduction and competition over resources’ is included in the scope of ‘alignment with evolutionary forces’.
No, it evolved once, as part of mammalian biology. Show me a non-mammal intelligence that evolved compassion, and I’ll take that argument more seriously.
Also, why should we give a damn about “evolution” wants, when we can, in principle anyway, form a singleton and end evolution? Evolution is mindless. It doesn’t have a plan. It doesn’t have a purpose. It’s just what happens under certain conditions. If all life on Earth was destroyed by runaway self-replicating nanobots, then the nanobots would clearly be “fitter” than what they replaced, but I don’t see what that has to do with goodness.
Sorry Crono, with a sample size of exactly one in regards to human level rationality you are setting the bar a little bit too high for me. However, considering how disconnected Zoroaster, Buddha, Lao Zi and Jesus where geographically and culturally I guess the evidence is as good as it gets for now.
The typical Bostromian reply again. There are plenty of other scholars who have an entirely different perspective on evolution than Bostrom. But beside that: you already do care, because if your (or your ancestors) violated the conditions of your existence (enjoying a particular type of food, a particular type of mate, feel pain when cut ect.) you would not even be here right now. I suggest you look up Dennet and his TED talk on Funny, Sexy Cute. Not everything about evolution is random: the mutation bit is, not that what happens to stick around though, since that has be meet the conditions of its existence.
What I am saying is very simple: being compassionate is one of these conditions of our existence and anyone failing to align itself will simply reduce its chances of making it—particularly in the very long run. I still have to finish my detailed response to Bostrom but you may want to read my writings on ‘rational spirituality’ and ‘freedom in the evolving universe’. Although you do not seem to assign a particularly high likelihood of gaining anything from doing that :-)
“Besides that”? All you did was name a statement of a fairly obvious preference choice after one guy who happened to have it so that you could then drop it dismissively.
No, he mightn’t care and I certainly don’t. I am glad I am here but I have no particular loyalty to evolution because of that. I know for sure that evolution feels no such loyalty to me and would discard both me and my species in time if it remained the dominant force of development.
CronDAS knows that. It’s obvious stuff for most in this audience. It just doesn’t mean what you think it means.
Wedrifid, not sure what to tell you. Bostrom is but one voice and his evolutionary analysis is very much flawed—again: detailed critique upcoming.
Evolution is not the dominant force of development on the human level by a long shot, but it still very much draws the line in the sand in regards to what you can and can not do if you want to stick around in the long run. You don’t walk your 5′8″ of pink squishiness in front of a train for the exact same reason. And why don’t you? Because not doing that is a necessary condition for your continued existence. What other conditions are there? Maybe there are some that are less obvious then simply stopping to breath, failing to eat and avoiding hard, fast, shiny things? How about at the level of culture? Could it possibly be, that there are some ideas that are more conducive to the continued existence of their believers than others?
How long do you think you can ignore evolutionary dynamics and get away with it before you have to get over your inertia and will be forced to align yourself to them by the laws of nature or perish? Just because you live in a time of extraordinary freedoms afforded to you by modern technology and are thus not aware that your ancestors walked a very particular path that brought you into existence certainly has nothing to do with the fact that they most certainly did. You do not believe that doing any random thing will get you what you want—so what leads you to believe that your existence does not depend on you making sure you stay within a comfortable margin of certainty in regards to being naturally selected? You are right in one thing: you are assured the benign indifference of the universe should you fail to wise up. I however would find that to be a terrible waste.
Please do not patronize me by trying to claim you know what I understand and don’t understand.
A literal answer was probably not what you were after but probably about 40 years, depending on when a general AI is created. After that it will not matter whether I conform my behaviour evolutionary dynamics as best I can or not. I will not be able to compete with a superintelligence no matter what I do. I’m just a glorified monkey. I can hold about 7 items in working memory, my processor is limited to the speed of neurons and my source code is not maintainable. My only plausible chance of survival is if someone manages to completely thwart evolutionary dynamics by creating a system that utterly dominates all competition and allows my survival because it happens to be programmed to do so.
Evolution created us. But it’ll also kill us unless we kill it first. Now is not the time to conform our values to the local minima of evolutionary competition. Our momentum has given us an unprecedented buffer of freedom for non-subsistence level work and we’ll either use that to ensure a desirable future or we will die.
I usually wouldn’t, I know it is annoying. In this case, however, my statement was intended as a rejection of your patronisation of CronDAS and I am quite comfortable with it as it stands.
Good one—but it reminds me about the religious fundies who see no reason to change anything about global warming because the rapture is just around the corner anyway :-)
Evolution is a force of nature so we won’t be able to ignore it forever, with or without AGI. I am not talking about local minima either—I want to get as close to the center of the optimal path as necessary to ensure having us around for a very long time with a very high likelihood.
I accept that.
Don’t forget the Y2K doomsday folks! ;)
Gravity is a force of nature too. It’s time to reach escape velocity before the planet is engulfed by a black hole.
Interesting analogy—it would be correct if we would call our alignment with evolutionary forces achieving escape velocity. What one is doing by resisting evolutionary pressures however is constant energy expenditure while failing to reach escape velocity. Like hovering a space shuttle at a constant altitude of 10 km: no matter how much energy you brig along, eventually the boosters will run out of fuel and the whole thing comes crushing down.
I could almost agree with this so long as ‘obliterate any competitive threat then do whatever the hell we want including, as as desired, removing all need for death, reproduction and competition over resources’ is included in the scope of ‘alignment with evolutionary forces’.