From: Wei Dai (weidai@eskimo.com)
Date: Thu May 23 2002 - 14:54:34 MDT
Here are my current thoughts. It's irrational to discard information while
making decisions, unless that information triggers some systematic error
in our thought processes. So according to Rational Thinking, if there is
no better way to correct the errors, we should identify which group
memberships trigger systematic errors in ourselves and try to disregard
those. Self Direction says we should respect other people's choices. So
unless belonging to a group makes a significant difference to other
people's lives, it should also be ignored. In the interest of rational
thinking, all other group membership information should be considered. The
voluntary/involuntary distinction does not make too much sense to me.
On Thu, May 23, 2002 at 10:36:17AM -0700, Hal Finney wrote:
> I think if you look at Extropian principles of self-transformation,
> intelligent technology, self-direction and others, we can hope to move
> towards a situation where group membership will be voluntary. Ideally,
> what you see is what he wants you to see. A person will be able to
> present himself in any fashion he desires.
>
> In that situation, it makes sense to use whatever information the person
> is presenting in order to judge how you will respond to him.
Even today, not many group memberships are completely involuntary. For
example you can change your sex or skin color using existing technology.
You can do plastic surgery to make yourself look like the member of a
different nationality, etc. Yes, there are enormous costs associated with
those operations, but I'm not sure the distinction should be based on
cost. Otherwise it would be acceptable to discriminate on the basis of sex
or race once it becomes cheap enough to change one's sex or race.
> Given that we do not yet have such complete control over our appearance,
> perhaps a reasonable approach today is to aim to approximate the ideal
> situation which we hope to move towards. Try to respond to people on
> the basis of those aspects of their appearance which they have adopted
> voluntarily, and less on those aspects which they have no control over.
Consider someone who has a low level of education because his parents were
too poor to pay for more education. He had no choice over his parents, but
I don't think I am morally obligated to ignore his level of education.
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