We often talk as though we are in direct contact with reality - as though our eyes show us the world, and our minds read off the facts. But between whatever reality fundamentally is and the experience you're having right now, there are a surprising number of layers. At each layer, two types of error happen: information gets left out, and bias creeps in. By the time experience reaches you, there's the potential for a great deal of both to have accumulated.
Put another way, rather than p...
More
evolution
You’re right about everything
You're absolutely right. About all of it. The big stuff, the weird stuff, the "nobody-gets-this" stuff. Every belief you hold is, against all odds, completely correct. I know I said before that you were wrong, but it was I who was wrong! Here's proof:
1) Unlike others, you're self-aware. You know your limits, so - unlike other people - when you know something, it's true. You weighed the evidence they ignored and saw angles they missed. Corrected your own biases. Your unique perspective revea...
More
Human universals: 6 remarkable things I think are true of nearly all adults
Some remarkable things I suspect are true of nearly all adults:
1) We each hold some beliefs that are almost totally non-responsive to evidence involving some combination of our identity (who we are), our group, the nature of reality (e.g., God), or the nature of what’s good.
Examples:
• Many have an unshakable belief that they are good even as they harm the world (or believe they’re insufficient even though they’re altruistic and productive)
• Most have an unshakable belief that t...
More
What would a robot value? An analogy for human values – part 4 of the Valuism sequence
By Spencer Greenberg and Amber Dawn Ace
This post is part of a sequence about Valuism - my life philosophy. This post is the most technical of the sequence. Here are the first, second, third, and fifth parts of the sequence.
Image created using the A.I. DALL•E 2
This is the fourth of five posts in my sequence of essays about my life philosophy, Valuism - here are the first, second, third, and fifth parts (though the last link won’t work until that essay is released).
I...
More
Tensions between moral anti-realism and effective altruism
I believe I've identified a philosophical confusion associated with people who state that they are both moral anti-realists and Effective Altruists (EAs). I'd be really interested in getting your thoughts on it. Fortunately, I think this flaw can be improved upon (I'm working on an essay about how I think that can be done), but I'd like to be sure that the flaw is really there first (hence why I'm asking you for your feedback now)!
People that this essay is not&...
More
Is every action secretly selfish?
I often hear people claim that everything we do is "selfish" or ultimately aimed at our own pleasure (and avoidance of pain). The way the argument usually goes is that we wouldn't do something unless we "wanted" to do it - and that even for altruistic actions, we do them because they feel good. This view is sometimes called "psychological egoism:" the claim that every human action is motivated by self-interest. I think this claim is either seriously mistaken (if interpreted one way) or true but...
More
Is altruism rational?
When people learn just a little about game theory, decision theory, economics, or even evolutionary theory, they sometimes come away thinking that altruism is somehow “irrational” or that rational agents are selfish.
Here are a number of reasons why altruism is often rational:
I. People can value altruism for its own sake:
1. Intrinsic values: as a psychological fact, most humans intrinsically value at least some things as ends (not merely as means to other ends) that are not about...
More
Our Human Games: games are everywhere, and they matter more than most people think
Games reflect an important part of human psychology. One broad way to think about "games" is that they are any situation that has:
(a) a set of rules (explicit or implicit) that are made up by humans,
(b) a scoring system (explicit or implicit) for determining how players are doing or for deciding who wins,
(c) participants who are trying to increase their "score," and
(d) a game context (outside of which the game rules stop applying).
So, by this definition, games include ch...
More
An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Traits
The rules of evolution are simple: (1) if a trait makes survival or breeding more likely, then that trait will tend to survive in the long term by being passed down the generations. (2) Gene mutation and gene mixing create new traits, which naturally vary in how much they promote survival.
Yet, the consequences of these simple rules are profound. Various facets of the world are hard to understand without taking evolution into account. Since our brains and bodies (as well as the natural world...
More
Bias based on facial attractiveness
There's a deeply-rooted, incredibly superficial aspect of human nature that is rarely discussed: our obsession with small variations in bone structure/skin smoothness on a person's face. At extremes, people are desired or shunned due to tiny, otherwise almost meaningless facial details.
In the attached image, there are two non-existent women (generated by a face generation AI set to generate "brown hair white adult female"). If these were real people, they would likely be treated differently...
More