But, like, he is wrong? I mean, in the sense that I expect a post-CEV Paul Graham to regret his choices. The fact that he does not believe so does the opposite of reassuring me, so I am confused about this.
I think part of the problem here is underspecification of CEV.
Let’s say Bob has never been kind to anyone unless its’ in his own self interest. He has noticed that being selfless is sort of an addictive thing for people, and that once they start doing it they start raving about how good it feels, but he doesn’t see any value in it right now. So he resolves to never be selfless, in order to never get hooked.
There are two ways for CEV to go in this instance, one way is to never allow bob to make a change that his old self wouldn’t endorse. Another way would be to look at all the potential changes he could make, posit a version of him that has had ALL the experiences and is able to reflect on them, then say “Yeah dude, you’re gonna really endorse this kindness thing once you try it.”
I think the second scenario is probably true for many other experiences than kindness, possibly including having children, enlightenment, etc. From our current vantage point it feels like having children would CHANGE our values, but another interpretation is that we always valued having children, we just never had the qualia of having children so we don’t understand how much we would value that particular experience.
But, like, he is wrong? I mean, in the sense that I expect a post-CEV Paul Graham to regret his choices. The fact that he does not believe so does the opposite of reassuring me, so I am confused about this.
I think part of the problem here is underspecification of CEV.
Let’s say Bob has never been kind to anyone unless its’ in his own self interest. He has noticed that being selfless is sort of an addictive thing for people, and that once they start doing it they start raving about how good it feels, but he doesn’t see any value in it right now. So he resolves to never be selfless, in order to never get hooked.
There are two ways for CEV to go in this instance, one way is to never allow bob to make a change that his old self wouldn’t endorse. Another way would be to look at all the potential changes he could make, posit a version of him that has had ALL the experiences and is able to reflect on them, then say “Yeah dude, you’re gonna really endorse this kindness thing once you try it.”
I think the second scenario is probably true for many other experiences than kindness, possibly including having children, enlightenment, etc. From our current vantage point it feels like having children would CHANGE our values, but another interpretation is that we always valued having children, we just never had the qualia of having children so we don’t understand how much we would value that particular experience.
What reasoning do you have in mind when you say you think he’ll regret his choices?