It's uncomfortable to admit that a significant portion of my life decisions have been dictated by combination of cultural and evolutionary scripts, acting in tandem to shape my behaviors and life outcomes. But perhaps this is common, if we're willing to admit it to ourselves.
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I see various philosophical movements in ethics as trying to respond to the challenge of our evolutionarily-determined impulses, sometimes in order to avoid "multipolar traps" (Moloch), other times to justify the relative superiority or inferiority of various kinds of impulses.
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On some level, personal decisions about ethics and morality are arbitrary, in that (1) how you're brought up and (2) who you're friends with and (3) how your brain works (relative to others) all combine to determine what kinds of stances you will plausibly take.
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This is not to say that ethics are fully arbitrary, merely that your positions are somewhat "random" and can fluctuate (obviously, although we don't like to admit that online). And, more interestingly, changing any of the above factors can cause a change in your ethical stances.
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I have been thinking about rsbakker's discussion of cognitive ecology in the linked blog post. We know and can study the sorts of changes in ethical stance based on social movement and upbringing. But what happens when we can change the brain itself?https://rsbakker.wordpress.com/2018/03/20/enlightenment-how-pinkers-tutelary-natures/ …
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The brain seems to be a sort of hard limit on the space of "reasonable" ethical stances a person can hold. The vast majority of ethical stances originate with an honest impulse that "this thing is/feels good and true, to me." What happens if you can modify what "feels ethical"?
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The sorts of biological modifications we can make on ethical positions seems limited inherently by how our brains operate. The easiest manipulation would seem to be manipulating the relative weight of a "core" ethical impulse, including turning it off entirely.
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We must ask: what are the atomic ethical impulses built into the human brain? Haidt's Moral Foundations seem like a first step. The following are taken as atomic impulses: caring for others, fairness, loyalty to tribe, respect for legitimate authority, and insistence on purity.
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Replying to @simpolism
Drive towards unity for that which dwlindles; that would be a good starting point too.
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Nietzsche spoke in his Nachlass of the ethical thought of unity (ie. that which you'll find in fascism, communism, christianity, idealism) as a biological reality found all across the living realm, even in unicellular beings, a drive towards annihilation of the self.
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Replying to @nastyinmuhtaxi
Ahh yeah, ecstatic union with a group, echoed by Fromm's "orgiastic experience" (and popularized by Brave New World and the 90s rave scene). I guess the broader question is "what are the experiences humans live for?" and maybe this is what Yudkowsky's fun series is about...
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