[Meta ]I suspect the discussion around this post would be more productive if the piles weren’t prime but entirely random* so commenters weren’t distracted by noticing the pattern, but by what it says about moral intuitions. Unless Eleizer was making a point by the use of primes that I’m missing of course.
*(To a species tragically lacking the pile-sorters intuition of course)
The point is that there’s a computation that describes which heaps are correct and which aren’t. In the same way there’s a computation that describes which actions are human!right and human!wrong. Humans don’t know the exact algorithm for this computation, in the same way that pebblesorters don’t know any algorithm that tests primality.
Eliezer in’t a moral relativist, and does believe that there is a pattern to morality.
Eliezer is technically not a moral relativist but this is mostly a matter of that label being a terrible way to carve reality. Unless I am very much mistaken, in terms of practical connotations Eliezer’s beliefs would be closer to those of a naive philosophy student who professes moral relativism than a similarly naive philosopher who professes the contrary position.
[Meta ]I suspect the discussion around this post would be more productive if the piles weren’t prime but entirely random* so commenters weren’t distracted by noticing the pattern, but by what it says about moral intuitions. Unless Eleizer was making a point by the use of primes that I’m missing of course.
*(To a species tragically lacking the pile-sorters intuition of course)
The point is that there’s a computation that describes which heaps are correct and which aren’t. In the same way there’s a computation that describes which actions are human!right and human!wrong. Humans don’t know the exact algorithm for this computation, in the same way that pebblesorters don’t know any algorithm that tests primality.
Eliezer in’t a moral relativist, and does believe that there is a pattern to morality.
Eliezer is technically not a moral relativist but this is mostly a matter of that label being a terrible way to carve reality. Unless I am very much mistaken, in terms of practical connotations Eliezer’s beliefs would be closer to those of a naive philosophy student who professes moral relativism than a similarly naive philosopher who professes the contrary position.