Good stuff, Eliezer. You have no idea how happy I am that this is part 1 of 8. Eight!!
Patrick, the way I understand the aliens’ psychology, it’s not that they eat babies because their terminal value is “the group comes before the individual”, it’s that their terminal value is “it’s good to eat babies”. That this was good for their group(s) in the early history of their species is the explanation for why they have this terminal value, but it doesn’t factor in their moral reasoning.
Good stuff, Eliezer. You have no idea how happy I am that this is part 1 of 8. Eight!!
Patrick, the way I understand the aliens’ psychology, it’s not that they eat babies because their terminal value is “the group comes before the individual”, it’s that their terminal value is “it’s good to eat babies”. That this was good for their group(s) in the early history of their species is the explanation for why they have this terminal value, but it doesn’t factor in their moral reasoning.