From: Hal Finney (hal@finney.org)
Date: Mon Jul 29 2002 - 20:05:27 MDT
Lee Corbin recently repeated his thought experiment about altruisum:
> If you are quite rational, and you are curious about whether
> or not you are sincerely altruistic towards others, here is
> a thought experiment that may help you determine the truth.
> ...
> The VR Solipsist
>
> What if it were somehow revealed to you by an unimpeachable
> source that not only were you living in a simulation, but that
> you were the only human creature in it?
I have made various comments about this scenario over time, mostly
expressing my dissatisfaction with various aspects, but let me take it
on its own terms for once.
Generally, an altruist cares about other people. In this scenario,
there are no other people. Hence an altruist would not behave kindly
in this scenario.
An egoist manipulates other people to his own advantage. In this
scenario, manipulation works just as well as it does in the real world.
Hence an egoist would continue to behave "kindly" and "altruistically"
in this scenario.
So I think that Lee's test can work in a sense, but the outcome may
be the opposite of what some people would expect. The true altruist
behaves non-altruistically, and vice versa.
Hal
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:15:46 MST