Re: Ethics (was FAI (aka 'Reality Hacking'))

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Sun Jan 30 2005 - 08:13:44 MST


Phil Goetz wrote:
>> --- "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> If that is how you define morality, then I want no part of morality,
>>> except insofar as it may be my natural inclination to be moral.
>
> I agree with your sentiment; but what is the purpose of a moral system
> that one is naturally inclined to obey?

What is the point of a moral system that one is *not* naturally inclined to
obey? If I were such an entity that I heard not the slightest force in the
argument that I should sacrifice my comfort and convenience to preserve the
lives of billions, what argument could possibly make me otherwise?

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://intelligence.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence


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