The existence of places like LessWrong, philosophy departments, etc, indicate that people do have some sort of goal to understand things in general, aside from any nitpicking about what is a true terminal value.
I agree- lots of people (including me, of course) are learning because they want to- not as part of some instrumental plan to achieve their other goals. I think this is significant evidence that we do terminally value learning. However, the way that I personally have the most fun learning is not the way that is best for cultivating a perfect understanding of reality (nor developing the model which is most instrumentally efficient, for that matter). This indicates that I don’t necessarily want to learn so that I can have the mental model that most accurately describes reality- I have fun learning for complicated reasons which I don’t expect align with any short guiding principle.
Also, at least for now, I get basically all of my expected value from learning from my expectations for being able to leverage that knowledge. I have a lot more fun learning about e.g. history than the things I actually spend my time on, but historical knowledge isn’t nearly as useful, so I’m not spending my time on it.
In retrospect, I should’ve said something more along the lines of “We value understanding in and of itself, but (at least for me, and at least for now) most of the value in our understanding is from its practical role in the advancement of our other goals.”
I’ve already stated than I am not talking about confirming specific models.
There’s been a mix-up here- my meaning for “specific” also includes “whichever model corresponds to reality the best”
I agree- lots of people (including me, of course) are learning because they want to- not as part of some instrumental plan to achieve their other goals. I think this is significant evidence that we do terminally value learning. However, the way that I personally have the most fun learning is not the way that is best for cultivating a perfect understanding of reality (nor developing the model which is most instrumentally efficient, for that matter). This indicates that I don’t necessarily want to learn so that I can have the mental model that most accurately describes reality- I have fun learning for complicated reasons which I don’t expect align with any short guiding principle.
Also, at least for now, I get basically all of my expected value from learning from my expectations for being able to leverage that knowledge. I have a lot more fun learning about e.g. history than the things I actually spend my time on, but historical knowledge isn’t nearly as useful, so I’m not spending my time on it.
In retrospect, I should’ve said something more along the lines of “We value understanding in and of itself, but (at least for me, and at least for now) most of the value in our understanding is from its practical role in the advancement of our other goals.”
There’s been a mix-up here- my meaning for “specific” also includes “whichever model corresponds to reality the best”