Most people do not actually like screwing over other people
I think this is very culturally dependent. For example, wars of conquest were considered glorious in most places and times, and that’s pretty much the ultimate form of screwing over other people. Or for another example, the first orphanages were built by early Christians, before that the orphans were usually disposed of. Or recall how common slavery and serfdom have been throughout history.
Basically my view is that human nature without indoctrination into “goodness” is quite nasty by default. Empathy is indeed a feeling we have, and we can feel it deeply (...sometimes). But we ended up with this feeling mainly due to indoctrination into “goodness” over generations. We wouldn’t have nearly as much empathy if that indoctrination hadn’t happened, and it probably wouldn’t stay long term if that indoctrination went away.
I do want to say that stuff is a true part of one’s values once it triggers the feelings of yumminess/yearning/etc, regardless of whether memes were involved in installing the values along the way. I want to distinguish that from the case where people “tie themselves in knots”, trying to act like they value something or telling themselves that they value something when the feelings are not in fact there, because they’ve been told they “should” value the thing.
So yeah, some of our actual values are installed culturally/memetically, and that doesn’t automatically make them bad or fake values. I’m on board with that, so long as the underlying feelings of yumminess/yearning/etc actually show up.
We can throw out the other junk of memetic egregore Goodness, without abandoning the stuff people actually feel good about.
But why do you think that people’s feelings of “yumminess” track the reality of whether an action is cooperate/cooperate? I’ve explained that it hasn’t been true throughout most of history: people have been able to feel “yummy” about very defecting actions. Maybe today the two coincide unusually well, but then that demands an explanation.
I think it’s just not true. There are too many ways to defect and end up better off, and people are too good at rationalizing why it’s ok for them specifically to take one of those ways. That’s why we need an evolving mechanism of social indoctrination, “goodness”, to make people choose the cooperative action even when it doesn’t feel “yummy” to them in the moment.
But why do you think that people’s feelings of “yumminess” track the reality of whether an action is cooperate/cooperate?
I don’t think that’s the right question here?
Let me turn it around: you say “That’s why we need an evolving mechanism of social indoctrination, “goodness”, to make people choose the cooperative action even when it doesn’t feel “yummy” to them in the moment.”. But, like, the memetic egregore “Goodness” clearly does not track that in a robust generalizable way, any more than people’s feelings of yumminess do. The egregore is under lots of different selection pressures besides just “get people to not defect”, and the egregore has indoctrinated people in different things over time. So why are you attached to the whole egregore, rather than wanting to jettison the bulk of the egregore and focus directly on getting people to not defect? Why do you think that the memetic egregore Goodness tracks the reality of whether an action is cooperate/cooperate?
But, like, the memetic egregore “Goodness” clearly does not track that in a robust generalizable way, any more than people’s feelings of yumminess do.
I feel you’re overstating the “any more” part, or at least it doesn’t match my experience. My feelings of “goodness” often track what would be good for other people, while my feelings of “yumminess” mostly track what would be good for me. Though of course there are exceptions to both.
So why are you attached to the whole egregore, rather than wanting to jettison the bulk of the egregore and focus directly on getting people to not defect?
This can be understood two ways. 1) A moral argument: “We shouldn’t have so much extra stuff in the morality we’re blasting in everyone’s ears, it should focus more on the golden rule / unselfishness”. That’s fine, everyone can propose changes to morality, go for it. 2) “Everyone should stop listening to morality radio and follow their feels instead”. Ok, but if nobody listens to the radio, by what mechanism do you get other people to not defect? Plenty of people are happy to defect by feels, I feel I’ve proved that sufficiently. Do you use police? Money? The radio was pretty useful for that actually, so I’m not with you on this.
I think this is very culturally dependent. For example, wars of conquest were considered glorious in most places and times, and that’s pretty much the ultimate form of screwing over other people. Or for another example, the first orphanages were built by early Christians, before that the orphans were usually disposed of. Or recall how common slavery and serfdom have been throughout history.
Basically my view is that human nature without indoctrination into “goodness” is quite nasty by default. Empathy is indeed a feeling we have, and we can feel it deeply (...sometimes). But we ended up with this feeling mainly due to indoctrination into “goodness” over generations. We wouldn’t have nearly as much empathy if that indoctrination hadn’t happened, and it probably wouldn’t stay long term if that indoctrination went away.
I do want to say that stuff is a true part of one’s values once it triggers the feelings of yumminess/yearning/etc, regardless of whether memes were involved in installing the values along the way. I want to distinguish that from the case where people “tie themselves in knots”, trying to act like they value something or telling themselves that they value something when the feelings are not in fact there, because they’ve been told they “should” value the thing.
So yeah, some of our actual values are installed culturally/memetically, and that doesn’t automatically make them bad or fake values. I’m on board with that, so long as the underlying feelings of yumminess/yearning/etc actually show up.
We can throw out the other junk of memetic egregore Goodness, without abandoning the stuff people actually feel good about.
But why do you think that people’s feelings of “yumminess” track the reality of whether an action is cooperate/cooperate? I’ve explained that it hasn’t been true throughout most of history: people have been able to feel “yummy” about very defecting actions. Maybe today the two coincide unusually well, but then that demands an explanation.
I think it’s just not true. There are too many ways to defect and end up better off, and people are too good at rationalizing why it’s ok for them specifically to take one of those ways. That’s why we need an evolving mechanism of social indoctrination, “goodness”, to make people choose the cooperative action even when it doesn’t feel “yummy” to them in the moment.
I don’t think that’s the right question here?
Let me turn it around: you say “That’s why we need an evolving mechanism of social indoctrination, “goodness”, to make people choose the cooperative action even when it doesn’t feel “yummy” to them in the moment.”. But, like, the memetic egregore “Goodness” clearly does not track that in a robust generalizable way, any more than people’s feelings of yumminess do. The egregore is under lots of different selection pressures besides just “get people to not defect”, and the egregore has indoctrinated people in different things over time. So why are you attached to the whole egregore, rather than wanting to jettison the bulk of the egregore and focus directly on getting people to not defect? Why do you think that the memetic egregore Goodness tracks the reality of whether an action is cooperate/cooperate?
I feel you’re overstating the “any more” part, or at least it doesn’t match my experience. My feelings of “goodness” often track what would be good for other people, while my feelings of “yumminess” mostly track what would be good for me. Though of course there are exceptions to both.
This can be understood two ways. 1) A moral argument: “We shouldn’t have so much extra stuff in the morality we’re blasting in everyone’s ears, it should focus more on the golden rule / unselfishness”. That’s fine, everyone can propose changes to morality, go for it. 2) “Everyone should stop listening to morality radio and follow their feels instead”. Ok, but if nobody listens to the radio, by what mechanism do you get other people to not defect? Plenty of people are happy to defect by feels, I feel I’ve proved that sufficiently. Do you use police? Money? The radio was pretty useful for that actually, so I’m not with you on this.