Principles of action: fundamentals of how action works

DDthinker31 Mar 2024 2:19 UTC
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Introduction

For all action that an actor in the cosmos does, there can be determined general principles of action which are able to guide action which I call ‘principles of action’. My principles of action are given and organised in what I call ‘frameworks’ which is a technique I developed during my researching efforts which is able to represent many pieces of knowledge in a unified whole.

Components of frameworks

Frameworks are structured in three ways of ‘subject’, ‘description’, and ‘placement’. The components of frameworks see subjects which are given descriptions which are then placed in a placement relative to other pieces of knowledge by indents (spaces) and lines. Each line has a single section which can have subsections in immediately following indented lines. An example framework would be the following:

  • .subject—description

    • -subject—description

      • -subject—description

      • -subject—description

    • -subject—description

      • -subject—description

The following components of frameworks have the following descriptions (as given by the following framework as another example):

  • .subject—the thing that is being described and having associated knowledge and given a name

  • .description—the content of knowledge associated with a thing

  • .placement—where and when knowledge is located of a thing

    • -position—where a thing occurs logically within another idea (as a subsection of a supersection) as seen in idents. positioning nests knowledge under a supersection in which a supersection is thematic with all subsections having a similar theme

    • -ordering—when a thing occurs logically after another idea as seen in lines coming one after the other

Heeding knowledge

Knowledge in my frameworks is typically very concise and succinct in which there is a great density of knowledge within my frameworks so slow, methodical, and thoughtful reading is necessary to make sure knowledge is understood, heeded, and remembered. Sections have subjects which are typically well named and so this aids remembering the descriptions of a section. How sections relate to each other is important in frameworks so paying attention to idents and if necessary looking or glancing back at previously read section subjects can allow for the good structuring of knowledge within one’s mind; with sections which contain many nested subsections that can extend quite far in lines, it is easy to lose track of where knowledge is placed so looking back is necessary.

Frameworks can be thought as similar to how sections of a document organises knowledge however frameworks are different as they are applied down to the scale of individual ideas. Frameworks are also typically highly deliberate in their organisation in which a hefty amount of discussion of ideas is done before frameworks are created or altered

My ideas of principles of action

The following framework presents my ideas of principles of action:

  • .principles of action

    • -the cosmic actor perspective—we are fundamentally actors in the cosmos which think and act based on cosmic situations and what we value in priorities

    • -action theory—how action works

      • -consequence principles

        • -situations—situations select ideas which go on to produce actions

        • -consequences—actions can have produced consequences in cause and effect

        • -basis in the mind—situations and imagined consequences of situations have basis in reasoning and reasoning mechanisms of my self principles; for instance inductive reasoning sees situations and consequences create generalised rules about them e.g. the situation of no heating will create the consequence of something being cold as a general rule

        • -understanding classifications—situations and consequences can have classifications of understanding

          • -understanding—situations and consequences can have an understanding

            • -understood—situations and consequences can be understood

            • -nonunderstood—situations and consequences can be nonunderstood

              • -unintended consequences—some consequences can be hard to predict and have nonunderstood unintended consequences

          • -complexity—situations and consequences can be of a complexity

            • -simple—situations and consequences are readily understandable

            • -complex—situations and consequences are not understandable

        • -consequentialism—consequences that are good should be strived towards (see the phrase “the ends justify the means”, see the concept of utilitarianism)

          • -action based in good/​efficient ideas leads to good consequences

      • -action principles

        • -optimal action—preferably for optimal action instantaneous collection of ideas for actions should occur although it is unlikely given ideas evolve and collect slowly (in the mind) and noninstantaneously over time (see SS situational collection)

          • -principled action—actions can be understood based in principles of cosmic situations and areas of action (see further sections of action philosophy)

          • -practical optimisation—there needs to be a balance of practicality and optimisation in which it isn’t practical to completely optimise actions (see also pragmatic)

        • -general and special action—general situations necessitate general actions while special situations necessitate special actions

          • -general action—actions can be generalised to general situations (see the concepts of virtue ethics and rule utilitarianism)

          • -special action—actions can be specialised to special situations (see the concept of act utilitarianism)

        • -simple and complex action

          • -simple actions—actions can be simple

          • -complex actions—complex actions require logistics, arrangement, and thinking in accounting for many things

            • -special arrangement—special arrangements can be made for special actions

            • -complex action optimisation—actions which are complex are fraught with optimisation and efficiency problems of various ways actions can be done

        • -action prioritisation—important actions are prioritised per cosmic priorities and thought about more and specially

    • -prioritised action

      • -cosmic priorities—an entity of a specific type has priorities in which general human priorities are given in cosmic priorities

        • -fundamental priorities—humans have fundamental things which they prioritise

          • -self—humans prioritise the self

            • -suffering—humans want to minimise suffering of the self

            • -mortality—humans want to avoid dying of the self

          • -others—humans prioritise others (typically less than the self due to selfishness)

            • -suffering—humans want to minimise suffering of others

            • -mortality—humans want to avoid dying of others

        • -priority focuses—fundamental priorities can focus on specific areas of attention

          • -individual focus—actions which are focused on the individual benefit the self

          • -other individuals focus—actions which are focused on other individuals benefit others (e.g. family and friends)

          • -world focus—actions which are focused on the world benefit others and perhaps the self

        • -instrumental goals—the fundamental priorities (terminal goals) are achieved via instrumental goals which are the means to the end (see also the concept of ‘motives’)

        • -problems—situations which are bad for priorities. problems can be direct (e.g. a friend getting injured) or indirect and of instrumental goals (e.g. losing your car keys)

        • -universal goodwill—any empathetic being regardless of time and space directing their care towards any and all other empathetic beings that are suffering regardless of time and space (see the concept of longtermism and future people’s value)

          • -anonymous goodwill—even if you are not known to others and you feel alone in your suffering, a thought of care towards the anonymous still encompasses care towards you

        • -evolutionary morality—morality and priorities has origin in evolution seemingly (see the concept of evolutionary ethics)

          • -personal morality—morality has been evolutionarily generated through the personal interaction of people in which the impersonal dealing of people e.g. of many people, isn’t easily morally comprehensible (it is hard to comprehend the moral significance of a million people and people focus on individual persons)

      • -ethics—theory of right and wrong action (organised per priority focuses)

        • -individual ethics—ethics of individual focus

          • -survival—individual mortality action

          • -hedonism—individual suffering action

          • -virtue ethics—acting well as an individual (e.g. via self-knowledge)

        • -other individuals ethics—ethics of other individuals focus

          • -caring action—other individuals mortality action

          • -friendly action—other individuals suffering action

        • -world ethics—ethics of world focus (encompassing the concept of utilitarianism)

          • -principle of utility—all actions should be judged based on utility it provides, that is, their tendency to produce benefit, advantage, pleasure, good, or happiness i.e. of suffering or mortality of fundamental priorities

          • -utility calculus—calculation of utility of actions for maximal utility (see the concept of felicific calculus)

            • -suffering calculation—measuring relative amount of distress, eustress, and neutral states given actions for each person (distress and eustress are explained in my ‘entertainment ideas’)

            • -mortality calculation—enumerating lives of each person that can be saved given actions

            • -incomparability of suffering and mortality—actions which affect both suffering and mortality aren’t able to be compared well (see the concept of the ‘repugnant conclusion’) (an example of the incomparability of suffering and mortality would be saving one persons life at the cost of the suffering of many people) (i’m a bit unsure of these ideas)

            • -complex consequences—actions per action theory can have complex consequences e.g. an important individual may hold more value in providing utility to others and thus should be prioritised

              • -longtermism—actions may have complex longterm consequences

    • -cosmic situation—you are fundamentally an actor in the cosmos so it’s best to consider the whole cosmos

      • -universal situations—the universe’s general character for the actor

        • -possible cosmic situations—there are possible cosmic situations that the actor may be placed in (may be unfalsifiable)

          • -godlike entity—cosmic situation with a godlike entity (godhood is desirable for any entity so if it’s possible it has almost certainly occurred)

            • -according to religions

            • -not according to religions

          • -simulation hypothesis—cosmic situation of the actor being in a computer simulation (like in the movie the matrix)

            • -for experimentations on civilisation

            • -for ancestor simulations

          • -arbitrary and unknown—the cosmic situation may be arbitrary and unknown

        • -cosmic situation perspectives - (section omitted)

          • -

        • -earthly situation—the cosmic situation can be focused on earth’s situation for humans

          • -earthly problems—obstacles and dangers of fundamental priorities in the earthly situation (see the concept of maslow’s hierarchy of needs)

            • -safety (e.g. accidents)

            • -physical health (e.g. illnesses, fitness, and nutrition)

            • -mental health (e.g. entertainment and relationships)

          • -obtaining things—obtaining things deals with earthly problems

            • -thing types

              • -personal things (e.g. possessions, money, job)

              • -relationships

            • -things of the economy—the economy allows for the dealing with problems via fabricating things and resources which can be obtained to resolve problems

          • -important technologies (things created via the economy and such)

            • -AI—capable of resolving all problems if sufficiently capable

              • -ASI (artificial super intelligence) developed in the 2050s or 2060s (survey saying “high-level machine intelligence” developed with 50% confidence by 2061. the survey defined the achievement of high-level machine intelligence as when unaided machines can accomplish every task better and more cheaply than human workers)

                • -technological singularity, the point where technological progress accelerates to a massive degree, would occur by 2045 perhaps according to ray kurzweil

              • -many capabilities and technologies being created shortly after the development of ASI (such as life extension technologies and automation technologies)

                • -complete life extension technologies

                • -complete automation technologies (all employment ended, see the concept of technological unemployment)

                  • -VR—virtual reality such as full immersion VR which immerses all the senses with artificial stimuli (allowing for things like a beautiful appearance for people)

                    • -unified economic platform for VR worlds replacing the physical economy with a virtual reality economy such as in a metaverse (standard platform dominates in providing full immersion VR, requiring infrastructure such as perhaps pods like in the matrix)

                    • -neuroscience technologies allowing for full immersion of all the senses

              • -highest levels of civilisational advancement occuring in the late 21st century or soon after

                • -solar system engineering—the solar system’s matter could be used for human purposes (e.g. stuff like a dyson swarm or such)

                • -galactic colonisation—the colonisation of the galaxy could be initiated in the late 21st century

            • -life extension technologies—capable of resolving problems of mortality although encompassed by AI (emerging within the 21st century)

              • -longevity escape velocity—the life expectancy of people with life extension technologies could increase faster than they age e.g. increasing the life expectancy of a person by 2 years in a given year allowing for the possibility of living forever perhaps (perhaps occurring in the 2030s; “50% chance that we will reach longevity escape velocity by 2036”—Dr Aubrey de Grey)

      • -local situations—the universe’s local character for the actor which is relative to the individual (so can’t be specified)

Review of my ideas

My ideas of principles of action is foundational for all action for all individuals I feel and thus it is very important in my opinion. Although many of its ideas are simple and perhaps able to be dismissed as obvious and trivial, it is still important to consider the organisation of knowledge on the topic of principles of action instead of leaving it unorganised and implicitly known. With my technique of frameworks being somewhat unique, I feel my presentation of principles of action is novel and does a good job at clearly stating the topic’s ideas. My ideas of principles of action builds upon and encompasses ethics in which it make sense to define a new field of philosophy of action (‘action philosophy’) as there are foundational and philosophical ideas of action which isn’t encompassed by applied sciences (which is not foundational and philosophical).

I’ve made a magnum opus of all my ideas in what I call WAK11 which details a new system of philosophy and science which this post’s principles of action framework being only a small part of it so if you’re interested in foundational ideas of philosophy and science I think you’d find it interesting. WAK11 can be found here.

DDthinker31 Mar 2024 2:19 UTC
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1 comment8 min readLW link