From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Mon May 20 2002 - 06:11:38 MDT
Samantha Atkins wrote:
>
> > From: "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" <sentience@pobox.com>
> >>I think you don't *need* to teach kids to be self-serving. However, you
> >>can't teach kids to be altruistic by making them take out the garbage. The
> >>human mind just does not work that way, at least not in my experience. If
> >>you want to create altruism, give the kids opportunities for self-willed
> >>altruism, reward it when you see it, and don't be disappointed if you
> >>don't.
>
> Helping around the house has nothing at all to do with altruism.
> It does have a lot to do with a sense of fairness and having a
> stake (input and responsibilities) in one's environment.
If you are going to be "expecting" things of children (a very dangerous
attitude to take; "hoping" or "cultivating" is far safer), then you need to
have some idea of how the children see it. I understand that you might wish
children to help out of a sense of duty, responsibility, fairness, and
having some stake in one's environment. I am questioning whether it is
realistic to expect a child to view the world in this way. I don't recall
these emotions kicking in with respect to parentally enforced chores,
certainly not before the age of 13. The emotions you describe are felt only
when interacting with others as equals and making one's own choices.
Actually, human nature exhibits the disgusting property that the emotions of
responsibility are felt internally when interacting with others as equals,
but are *demanded* of others when interacting with them as their equals *or
superiors*. Back in the bad old days, slaveowners often saw slaves as
"shirking duty". The slaves were not likely to see it that way.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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