I confess that was not my reading of the text. I’ve been reading quite a few thought experiments recently, so I’m primed to interpret “possible worlds” that way. In my defense, the text links to Yudkowsky’s Self-Integrity and the Drowning Child, which uses the “Least Convenient Possible World” to indicate a counterfactual / thought experiment / hypothetical worlds. Regardless, I missed Alice’s point.
Since Alice was trying to ask about cruxes and uncertainty, here’s an altered dialog that I think is clearer:
Alice: Okay, so your objections are (1) hard work might harm you (2) you can’t change (3) social norms and (4) public relations. Is that it, or do you have other reasons?
Bob: Yes. I just kind of don’t really want to work harder.
Alice: I think we’ve arrived at the core of the problem.
Bob: We’re going full-contact psychoanalysis, then. Are you sure you want to go there? Maybe you are a workaholic because you have an unresolved need to impress your parents, or because it gives you moral license to be rude and arrogant, or because you never fully grew out of your childhood faith.
Alice: Unlike you, Bob, I see a therapist.
Bob: You mentioned. So we have two hypotheses. Maybe I don’t want to work harder and therefore have rationalized reasons not to. Maybe I have reasons not to work harder and therefore I don’t want to. I suppose I could see a therapist and get evidence to distinguish these cases. Then what? If I learn that, really, I just don’t want to work harder then you haven’t persuaded me to do anything differently, you’ve kind of just made me feel bad.
Alice: Maybe I’d like you to stop claiming to be a utilitarian, when you’re totally not—you’re just an egoist who happens to have certain tuistic preferences. I might respect you more if you had the integrity to be honest about it. Maybe I think you’re wrong, and there’s some way to persuade you to be better, and I just haven’t found it yet. [...]
This seems like you understood my intent; I’m glad we communicated! Though I think Bob seeing a therapist is totally an action that Alice would support, if he thinks that’s the best test of her ideas—and importantly if he thinks the test genuinely could go either way.
I confess that was not my reading of the text. I’ve been reading quite a few thought experiments recently, so I’m primed to interpret “possible worlds” that way. In my defense, the text links to Yudkowsky’s Self-Integrity and the Drowning Child, which uses the “Least Convenient Possible World” to indicate a counterfactual / thought experiment / hypothetical worlds. Regardless, I missed Alice’s point.
Since Alice was trying to ask about cruxes and uncertainty, here’s an altered dialog that I think is clearer:
Alice: Okay, so your objections are (1) hard work might harm you (2) you can’t change (3) social norms and (4) public relations. Is that it, or do you have other reasons?
Bob: Yes. I just kind of don’t really want to work harder.
Alice: I think we’ve arrived at the core of the problem.
Bob: We’re going full-contact psychoanalysis, then. Are you sure you want to go there? Maybe you are a workaholic because you have an unresolved need to impress your parents, or because it gives you moral license to be rude and arrogant, or because you never fully grew out of your childhood faith.
Alice: Unlike you, Bob, I see a therapist.
Bob: You mentioned. So we have two hypotheses. Maybe I don’t want to work harder and therefore have rationalized reasons not to. Maybe I have reasons not to work harder and therefore I don’t want to. I suppose I could see a therapist and get evidence to distinguish these cases. Then what? If I learn that, really, I just don’t want to work harder then you haven’t persuaded me to do anything differently, you’ve kind of just made me feel bad.
Alice: Maybe I’d like you to stop claiming to be a utilitarian, when you’re totally not—you’re just an egoist who happens to have certain tuistic preferences. I might respect you more if you had the integrity to be honest about it. Maybe I think you’re wrong, and there’s some way to persuade you to be better, and I just haven’t found it yet. [...]
This seems like you understood my intent; I’m glad we communicated! Though I think Bob seeing a therapist is totally an action that Alice would support, if he thinks that’s the best test of her ideas—and importantly if he thinks the test genuinely could go either way.