From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Wed Apr 24 2002 - 20:46:20 MDT
Damien Broderick wrote:
>
> At 03:33 PM 4/24/02 -0400, Dan wrote:
>
> >[Think how frustrating it would be to know that you've spent all that
> >time working on CATAI and now GISAI/CFAI, only to learn that in 2003
> >human civilization and all your work would be destroyed in nuclear
> >war.]
>
> There'd be chagrin (not to mention heart-breaking grief), but this account
> misses the point: you derive satisfaction *in the moment* by working on
> what you regard *then and there* as meaningful.
I think *that* misses the point; the satisfaction *helps* you do the work
but is not the *object* of the work. The object of philanthropy is not to
feel good about helping people but to actually help people - as many people
as possible, to the largest degree possible, at the highest possible
probability of success, given the available resources to invest.
At times like these, I like to quote one Zen definition of altruism:
"Altruistic behavior: An act done without any intent for personal gain in
any form. Altruism requires that there is no want for material, physical,
spiritual, or egoistic gain."
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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