From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Aug 12 2002 - 12:12:05 MDT
--- "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com> wrote:
> gts wrote:
> >
> > Again, so-called "altruistic" behaviors are motivated by a desire
> > for the subjective experience of reward. This means they are not
> > performed "without expecting a reward."
>
> Please explain an altruist who actually sacrifices his or her life
> in the course of altruism, at sufficient speed that there is no time
> for brain-reward. Please also explain why altruists will forgo much
> larger
> brain-rewards (measured in total neurotransmitter brain release or
> whatever you like) in order to gain the small brain-reward of
> altruism.
Getting something in return for your self sacrificial action can be
quite intangible. If you die believing your death has made the world
more like YOU selfishly want it to be, and perhaps not as a majority of
those who survive might want it to be, then that self sacrifice is
selfish in nature, because you achieved some degree of personal
satisfaction by your action.
If such activity is to be considered truly altruistic, then it is as,
or no more, altruistic than the satisfaction of taking out as many of
the 'bad guys' with your death, and I doubt that those on the list who
believe in the unselfish nature of altruism would consider this to be such.
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