From: Stathis Papaioannou (stathisp@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Jul 06 2008 - 05:25:27 MDT
2008/7/6 Lee Corbin <lcorbin@rawbw.com>:
>> But the crucial change will come when we are able to rewrite
>> our own source code. If you can see that the attempt to satisfy
>> a desire will lead to trouble, then change the desire or declare it
>> satisfied by fiat.
>
> Yes, very good. Exactly. However, I wonder if those who won't change, and
> so will still want to covet their neighbor's
> status, unique possessions, or resources will gain the upper
> hand evolutionarily.
> Another form of saying the same thing might be that the urge
> to dominate is probably an ESS. I don't like this, but I don't
> have any idea of what to do about it.
The same sense of fairness that leads you to remove your desire to
dominate others may also lead you to bolster your resolve not to be
dominated yourself and to help others who under threat of domination
by a third party. Thus if everyone has the ability to self-modify it
will be both easier to resist and harder to indulge your wicked urges,
making for a salubrious equilibrium where everyone is nice to everyone
else, and everyone is happy being nice to everyone else.
-- Stathis Papaioannou
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jul 17 2013 - 04:01:03 MDT