Posts

Thoughts on The Replacing Guilt Series⁠ — pt 1 2019-07-05T19:35:58.053Z
Personal musings on Individualism and Empathy 2019-06-07T17:07:37.283Z
On Hollywood Heroism 2018-10-12T21:35:01.035Z

Comments

Comment by dragohole on Thoughts on The Replacing Guilt Series⁠ — pt 1 · 2019-07-05T21:04:21.044Z · LW · GW

We're assuming that 'literally nothing [of importance] changes'.

I'm not claiming it follows from what I described earlier in the post, it's an assumption, made in order to make a point, because thought experiment :)

Albeit I concede that it's not clear from what I wrote.

Comment by dragohole on Thoughts on The Replacing Guilt Series⁠ — pt 1 · 2019-07-05T20:38:36.556Z · LW · GW

Nothing incoherent about the first part with the spaceship.

What's an actual mind? How do you know that a dog has it? Would you care about an alien living creature that has a different mind-design and doesn't feel qualia? Anyway, if you have no reason to think that the element is absent, then you'll believe that it's present. It's precisely because you feel that something is (or will be) missing, you refuse the offer. You do have some priors about what consequences will be produced by your choice, and that's OK. Nothing incoherent in refusing the offer. That is, if you do have reasons to believe that that's the case.

I'm talking consequentialism, not logical positivism.

EDIT: It might just be a misunderstanding. When I'm talking about phenomena, I'm not talking about qualia, I'm talking about the general category of "events that take place in reality".

EDIT2: Ah. I don't think that there can be two worlds which are completely identical yet different (p-zombies stuff). But yeah, if we find out that the differences between a mind that experiences qualia and the mind that doesn't are insignificant (e.g. aliens!), then I do think it's weird to care about qualia, especially when there are so many other things to care about. But that's, like, my opinion, dude. It's fine if you disagree.

Comment by dragohole on On Hollywood Heroism · 2018-10-14T14:30:20.939Z · LW · GW

Oh, absolutely. Whatever your values are, they're valuable on their own. That's why doing the laundry feels meaningful. Winning means maximizing your values, whatever they are. The reframe of "X is actually good for Y" is helpful for transitioning to the state of valuing everything that IS valuable, coming from the point of being obsessed with one arbitrary thing.

Comment by dragohole on Hammertime Day 3: TAPs · 2018-03-25T07:03:00.816Z · LW · GW

I'm pretty late to the party, huh. Despite that, I'm really glad I can take part in this experience. It's the very thing I longed for: concrete instructions, baby steps, daily progress.

Now, my Sapience Spell:

It was kinda hard to think of a thing-that's-always-on-me. I don't really have prominent moles or rings, a bauble would stay on my desk even if I had it. One idea was to use my phone, but then I thought of situations where I didn't have it on me, and I would have really benefited from increased awareness back then.

I made one up. I took a choker that was collecting dust on one of the shelves and wrapped it around my wrist. A ring would work better, since sleeves could cover up a watch or a wristband, as in my case. I think I'll get one eventually.