I would say that, as traditionally understood, raw pleasure is the closest thing we have to a clean solipsistic benefit and power is clearly an accomplishment benefit. But I wouldn’t expect either example to be identical with the conceptual categories because there are other things that also fit there. In the real world, I don’t think being a really good friend with someone is about power, but it seems like an accomplishment to me.
But there is a deeper response available because a value’s status as a solipsistic or accomplishment benefit changes depending on the conception of simulation we use—when we imagine simulations that represent things more complex than a single agent in a physically stable context what counts as “accomplishment” can change.
One of the critical features of a simulation (at least with “all the normal hidden assumptions” of simulation) is that a simulation’s elements are arbitrarily manipulable from the substrate that the simulation is implemented in. From the substrate you can just edit anything. You can change the laws of physics. You can implement a set of laws of physics, and defy them by re-editing particular structures in “impossible” ways at each timestep. Generally, direct tweaks to uploaded mind-like processes are assumed not to happen in thought experiments, but it doesn’t have to be this way (and a strong version of Descartes’s evil demon could probably edit neuron states to make you believe that circles have corners if it wanted). We can imagine the editing powers of the substrate yoked to an agent-like process embedded in the simulation and, basically, the agent would get “magic powers”.
In Eliezer’s Thou Art Physics he asked “If the laws of physics did not control us, how could we possibly control ourselves? If we were not in reality, where could we be?”
As near as I can tell, basically all human values appear to have come into existence in the face of a breathtakingly nuanced system of mechanical constraint and physical limitation. So depending on (1) what you mean by “power”, and (2) what a given context’s limits are, then power could also be nothing but a solipsistic benefit.
Part of me is embarrassed to be talking about this stuff on a mere blog, but one of the deep philosophical problems with the singularity appears to be figuring out what the hell there is to do after the sexy robotic elohim pull us into their choir of post-scarcity femto-mechanical computronium. If it happens in a dumb way (or heck, maybe if it happens in the best possible way?) the singularity may be the end of the honest pursuit of accomplishment benefits. Forever.
If pursuit of accomplishment benefits is genuinely good (as opposed to simply growing out of cognitive dissonance about entropy and stuff) then it’s probably important to know that before we try to push a button we suspect will take such pursuits away from us.
I would say that, as traditionally understood, raw pleasure is the closest thing we have to a clean solipsistic benefit and power is clearly an accomplishment benefit. But I wouldn’t expect either example to be identical with the conceptual categories because there are other things that also fit there. In the real world, I don’t think being a really good friend with someone is about power, but it seems like an accomplishment to me.
But there is a deeper response available because a value’s status as a solipsistic or accomplishment benefit changes depending on the conception of simulation we use—when we imagine simulations that represent things more complex than a single agent in a physically stable context what counts as “accomplishment” can change.
One of the critical features of a simulation (at least with “all the normal hidden assumptions” of simulation) is that a simulation’s elements are arbitrarily manipulable from the substrate that the simulation is implemented in. From the substrate you can just edit anything. You can change the laws of physics. You can implement a set of laws of physics, and defy them by re-editing particular structures in “impossible” ways at each timestep. Generally, direct tweaks to uploaded mind-like processes are assumed not to happen in thought experiments, but it doesn’t have to be this way (and a strong version of Descartes’s evil demon could probably edit neuron states to make you believe that circles have corners if it wanted). We can imagine the editing powers of the substrate yoked to an agent-like process embedded in the simulation and, basically, the agent would get “magic powers”.
In Eliezer’s Thou Art Physics he asked “If the laws of physics did not control us, how could we possibly control ourselves? If we were not in reality, where could we be?”
As near as I can tell, basically all human values appear to have come into existence in the face of a breathtakingly nuanced system of mechanical constraint and physical limitation. So depending on (1) what you mean by “power”, and (2) what a given context’s limits are, then power could also be nothing but a solipsistic benefit.
Part of me is embarrassed to be talking about this stuff on a mere blog, but one of the deep philosophical problems with the singularity appears to be figuring out what the hell there is to do after the sexy robotic elohim pull us into their choir of post-scarcity femto-mechanical computronium. If it happens in a dumb way (or heck, maybe if it happens in the best possible way?) the singularity may be the end of the honest pursuit of accomplishment benefits. Forever.
If pursuit of accomplishment benefits is genuinely good (as opposed to simply growing out of cognitive dissonance about entropy and stuff) then it’s probably important to know that before we try to push a button we suspect will take such pursuits away from us.