I agree with this. There’s a lot going on and I think what we’re looking for isn’t (just) some kind of “prosocial algorithm” but rather a mind developed around integrity that probably comes with prosocial instincts and so on. In theory, we could imagine a self-aware psychopath who takes extreme care to avoid self-serving cognition and would always self-modify in prosocial ways. I’m not sure if such people exist, but I think it’s important not to blanket-dismiss an entire class of people with a specific set of chracteristics (even if the characteristics in question are “antisocial” [at least “system-1 antisocial”] by definition).
I broadly agree with Viliam’s comment above. Regarding Dagon’s comment (to which yours is a reply), I think that characterizing my position here as ‘people who aren’t neurotypical shouldn’t be trusted’ is basically strawmanning, as I explained in this comment. I explicitly don’t think this is correct, nor do I think I imply it is anywhere in this post.
As for your comment, I definitely agree that there is a distinction to be made between prosocial instincts and the learned behavior that these instincts give rise to over the lifespan, but I would think that the sort of ‘integrity’ that you point at here as well as the self-aware psychopath counterexample are both still drawing on particular classes of prosocial motivations that could be captured algorithmically. See my response to ‘plausible critique #1,’ where I also discuss self-awareness as an important criterion for prosociality.
I agree with this. There’s a lot going on and I think what we’re looking for isn’t (just) some kind of “prosocial algorithm” but rather a mind developed around integrity that probably comes with prosocial instincts and so on. In theory, we could imagine a self-aware psychopath who takes extreme care to avoid self-serving cognition and would always self-modify in prosocial ways. I’m not sure if such people exist, but I think it’s important not to blanket-dismiss an entire class of people with a specific set of chracteristics (even if the characteristics in question are “antisocial” [at least “system-1 antisocial”] by definition).
I broadly agree with Viliam’s comment above. Regarding Dagon’s comment (to which yours is a reply), I think that characterizing my position here as ‘people who aren’t neurotypical shouldn’t be trusted’ is basically strawmanning, as I explained in this comment. I explicitly don’t think this is correct, nor do I think I imply it is anywhere in this post.
As for your comment, I definitely agree that there is a distinction to be made between prosocial instincts and the learned behavior that these instincts give rise to over the lifespan, but I would think that the sort of ‘integrity’ that you point at here as well as the self-aware psychopath counterexample are both still drawing on particular classes of prosocial motivations that could be captured algorithmically. See my response to ‘plausible critique #1,’ where I also discuss self-awareness as an important criterion for prosociality.