Good question. First of all, is it even possible to change an individual’s terminal values ? My guess is that the answer is “no”; that’s why they are called “terminal values”.
That’s not what “terminal values” means. It simply means the values from which all of a person’s other values can be derived. It is perfectly possible to change one’s terminal values—for instance, a young child cares only about itself, while almost no adults care only about themselves.
That’s a good point. Another example is going through puberty. Although one could imagine an AI whose terminal values are always the same, and thus make changes to their behavior only due to acquiring new knowledge, it seems that humans are literally built for their terminal values to shift in particular ways.
That’s a good point about children (and puberty, as Crux said); it’s possible (and IMO likely) that some of their terminal values are malleable. But I also agree with what William_Bur said on a sibling thread: issues like racism and segregation are instrumental values, not terminal ones.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true—see for instance Haidt’s work on moral foundations. Plenty of people who opposed interracial marriage framed it as a matter of purity/contamination.
That’s not what “terminal values” means. It simply means the values from which all of a person’s other values can be derived. It is perfectly possible to change one’s terminal values—for instance, a young child cares only about itself, while almost no adults care only about themselves.
That’s a good point. Another example is going through puberty. Although one could imagine an AI whose terminal values are always the same, and thus make changes to their behavior only due to acquiring new knowledge, it seems that humans are literally built for their terminal values to shift in particular ways.
That’s a good point about children (and puberty, as Crux said); it’s possible (and IMO likely) that some of their terminal values are malleable. But I also agree with what William_Bur said on a sibling thread: issues like racism and segregation are instrumental values, not terminal ones.
I don’t think that’s necessarily true—see for instance Haidt’s work on moral foundations. Plenty of people who opposed interracial marriage framed it as a matter of purity/contamination.