Edit: values should probably be considered a separate class, since every thought has an associated valence.
In no particular order, and that’s the whole list.
Character is largely beliefs and habits.
There’s another part of character that’s purely emotional; it’s sort of a habit to get angry, scared, happy, etc in certain circumstances. I’d want to preserve that too but it’s less important than the big three.
There are plenty of beings striving to survive, so preserving that isn’t a big priority outside of preserving the big three.
Yes you can expand the circle until it encompasses everything, and identify with all sentient beings who have emotions and perceive the world semi-accurately (also called “buddha nature”), but I think beliefs habits and memories are pretty closely tied to the semantics of the world “identity”.
Right. I suppose that day ea interact with identity.
If I get significantly dumber, I’d still roughly be me, and I’d want to preserve that if it’s not wipes ng out or distorting the other things too much. If I got substantially smarter, I’d be a somewhat different person—I’d act differently often, because I’d see situations differently (more clearly/holistically) but it feels as though that persone might actually be more me than I am now. I’d be better able to do what I want, including values (which I’d sort of wrapped in to habits of thought, but values might deserve a spot on the list).
The way I usually frame identity is
Beliefs
Habits (edit—including of thought)
Memories
Edit: values should probably be considered a separate class, since every thought has an associated valence.
In no particular order, and that’s the whole list.
Character is largely beliefs and habits.
There’s another part of character that’s purely emotional; it’s sort of a habit to get angry, scared, happy, etc in certain circumstances. I’d want to preserve that too but it’s less important than the big three.
There are plenty of beings striving to survive, so preserving that isn’t a big priority outside of preserving the big three.
Yes you can expand the circle until it encompasses everything, and identify with all sentient beings who have emotions and perceive the world semi-accurately (also called “buddha nature”), but I think beliefs habits and memories are pretty closely tied to the semantics of the world “identity”.
There are also cognitive abilities, e.g. degree of intelligence.
Right. I suppose that day ea interact with identity.
If I get significantly dumber, I’d still roughly be me, and I’d want to preserve that if it’s not wipes ng out or distorting the other things too much. If I got substantially smarter, I’d be a somewhat different person—I’d act differently often, because I’d see situations differently (more clearly/holistically) but it feels as though that persone might actually be more me than I am now. I’d be better able to do what I want, including values (which I’d sort of wrapped in to habits of thought, but values might deserve a spot on the list).
In America/Western culture, I totally agree.
I’m curious whether alien/LLM-based would adopt these semantics too.
I wonder under what conditions one would make the opposite statement—that there’s not enough striving.
For example, I wonder if being omniscient would affect one’s view of whether there’s already enough striving or not.