I guess you feel the need to maximise your utility in society? You are certain that this is a moral necessity for you? I got into research because I thought it would be interesting, and pay reasonably well, and I didn’t want to commit to a real world job. Oh, and potentially i might make more a difference than in other fields I’d considered. I’d also argue that its not that easy to switch fields- I went into statistics because thats where I found my knowledge easiest to apply. I suspect I could have done as well in politics, or in historical study, or in the financial sector. I chose my sector because I felt I’d enjoy doing it.
I guess you feel the need to maximise your utility in society?
I feel a certain symmetry between my needs and others’ which makes me want to try to address their needs as well as mine. Thinking about this more has caused the feeling to become less and less abstract, until recently it has acquired motive power in my decision-making process.
I am talking about altruistic justifications of research in particular because this is an argument that people have a lot, even if they don’t really care about the outcome deep down. I think resolving this dissonance (if in fact it is a dissonance) will probably make at least some people apply their intelligence to furthering my values instead of doing research, which is of course something I consider important.
I feel a certain symmetry between my needs and others’ which makes me want to try to address their needs as well as mine. Thinking about this more has caused the feeling to become less and less abstract, until recently it has acquired motive power in my decision-making process.
:D Awesome! Did you just think about it more in general, or was there a particular kind of thinking about it that made it more salient to your decision-making process? If all it takes to internalize abstract (far mode) philosophical intuitions is thinking about them repeatedly then I have greater hope for a few SIAI Visiting Fellows’ work on meta-optimized spaced repetition techniques.
I guess you feel the need to maximise your utility in society? You are certain that this is a moral necessity for you? I got into research because I thought it would be interesting, and pay reasonably well, and I didn’t want to commit to a real world job. Oh, and potentially i might make more a difference than in other fields I’d considered. I’d also argue that its not that easy to switch fields- I went into statistics because thats where I found my knowledge easiest to apply. I suspect I could have done as well in politics, or in historical study, or in the financial sector. I chose my sector because I felt I’d enjoy doing it.
I feel a certain symmetry between my needs and others’ which makes me want to try to address their needs as well as mine. Thinking about this more has caused the feeling to become less and less abstract, until recently it has acquired motive power in my decision-making process.
I am talking about altruistic justifications of research in particular because this is an argument that people have a lot, even if they don’t really care about the outcome deep down. I think resolving this dissonance (if in fact it is a dissonance) will probably make at least some people apply their intelligence to furthering my values instead of doing research, which is of course something I consider important.
:D Awesome! Did you just think about it more in general, or was there a particular kind of thinking about it that made it more salient to your decision-making process? If all it takes to internalize abstract (far mode) philosophical intuitions is thinking about them repeatedly then I have greater hope for a few SIAI Visiting Fellows’ work on meta-optimized spaced repetition techniques.