Posts
Comments
After reading the 2006 version, I feel that I understand the argument better.
But since I've read the 2009 version before, it's difficult to tell if the 2006 version is really more comprehensible (to me) or the understanding is an effect of having read both versions.
This is off-topic, but Vladimir Nesov's referring to the paperclip-maximizing super-intelligence as just "paperclip" made me chuckle, because it conjured up images in my head of Clippy bent on destroying the Earth.
I am surprised no-one this far has mentioned the (irrational) impulse of aisle seat passengers to make room for middle and window seat passengers to get out. Whenever I get the aisle seat, I have to fight the primate part of my brain that tells me that the passengers behind me in line want to move on, that I am keeping them from moving on, and that they are annoyed by my behaviour.
I know intellectually that deplaning won't happen any faster if I get up early, but if I do, the blame for the slowness then appears to lie with whoever is blocking the aisle between me and the exit, and not with myself.
This kind of social pressure may to a great extent explain why deplaning behaviour is the way it is.
If I were actually convinced that there is no right or wrong (very unlikely), I would probably do everything I could to keep the secret from getting out.
Even if there is no morality, my continued existence relies on everyone else believing that there is one, so that they continue to behave altruistically towards me.