The obvious reason that Moloch is the enemy is that it destroys everything we value in the name of competition and survival.
Moloch is not always the enemy. Competition (among imperfectly-aligned agents) is the most efficient arbitration of different values. For almost everyone, survival is in fact something they value quite highly. Moloch happens when these pressures become so great (or are perceived as such) that they crowd out other values. Moloch destroys nothing except the illusion of freedom. Moloch creates value, just not the exact mix of value types that some or all participants would prefer.
But this is missing the bigger picture. We value what we value because, in our ancestral environment, those tended to be the things that helped us with competition and survival.
“tended to be” and “are exactly and only” are very different statements. You’re saying the first, but your argument requires the second. My preferences as an individual human vary greatly from a historical human average. Even to the extent that they’re mutable and change with time, I have meta-preferences about the ways in which they change, and those are ALSO different from any historical or aggregate set.
If the things that help us compete and survive end up changing, then evolution will ensure that the things we value change as well.
Not even. There’s a bit of Slack even between genotype and phenotype, and a whole lot between biology and psychology.
I think of slack in this context like a “tax” on evolution—it doesn’t prevent the relevant forces (metaphorically supply and demand) from working, it just limits their speed, and prevents them from approaching a perfect solution with no inefficiency at the limits.
Moloch is not always the enemy. Competition (among imperfectly-aligned agents) is the most efficient arbitration of different values. For almost everyone, survival is in fact something they value quite highly. Moloch happens when these pressures become so great (or are perceived as such) that they crowd out other values. Moloch destroys nothing except the illusion of freedom. Moloch creates value, just not the exact mix of value types that some or all participants would prefer.
“tended to be” and “are exactly and only” are very different statements. You’re saying the first, but your argument requires the second. My preferences as an individual human vary greatly from a historical human average. Even to the extent that they’re mutable and change with time, I have meta-preferences about the ways in which they change, and those are ALSO different from any historical or aggregate set.
Not even. There’s a bit of Slack even between genotype and phenotype, and a whole lot between biology and psychology.
I think of slack in this context like a “tax” on evolution—it doesn’t prevent the relevant forces (metaphorically supply and demand) from working, it just limits their speed, and prevents them from approaching a perfect solution with no inefficiency at the limits.