To ask what God should do to make people happy, I would begin by asking whether happiness or pleasure are coherent concepts in a future in which every person had a Godbot to fulfill their wishes. (This question has been addressed many times in science fiction, but with little imagination.) If the answer is no, then perhaps God should be “unkind”, and prevent desire-saturation dynamics from arising. (But see the last paragraph of this comment for another possibility.)
What things give us the most pleasure today? I would say, sex, creative activity, social activity, learning, and games.
Elaborating on sexual pleasure probably leads to wireheading. I don’t like wireheading, because it fails my most basic ethical principle, which is that resources should be used to increase local complexity. Valuing wireheading qualia also leads to the conclusion that one should tile the universe with wireheaders, which I find revolting, although I don’t know how to justify that feeling.
Social activity is difficult to analyze, especially if interpersonal boundaries, and the level of the cognitive hierarchy to relate to as a “person”, are unclear. I would begin by asking whether we would get any social pleasure from interacting with someone whose thoughts and decision processes were completely known to us.
Creative activity and learning may or may not have infinite possibilities. Can we continue constructing more and more complex concepts, to infinity? If so, then knowledge is probably also infinite, for as soon as we have constructed a new concept, we have something new to learn about. If not, then knowledge—not specific knowledge of what you had for lunch today, but general knowledge—may be limited. Creative activity may have infinite possibilities, even if knowledge is finite.
(The answer to whether intelligence has infinite potential has many other consequences; notably, Bayesian reasoners are likely only in a universe in which there are finite useful concepts, because otherwise it will be preferable to be a non-Bayesian reasoning over more complex concepts using faster algorithms.)
Games largely rely on uncertainty, improving mastery, and competition. Most of what we get out of “life”, besides relationships and direct hormonal pleasures like sex, food, and fighting, is a lot like what we get from playing a game. One fear is that life will become like playing chess when you already know the entire game tree.
If we are so unfortunate as to live in a universe in which knowledge is finite, then conflict may serve as a substitute for ignorance in providing us a challenge. A future of endless war may be preferable to a future in which someone has won. It may even be preferable to a future of endless peace. If you study the middle ages of Europe, you will probably at some point ask, “Why did these idiots spend so much time fighting, when they could have all become wealthier if they simply stopped fighting long enough for their economies to grow?” Well, those people didn’t know that economies could grow. They didn’t believe that there was any further progress to be made in any domain—art, science, government—until Jesus returned. They didn’t have any personal challenges; the nobility often weren’t even allowed to do work. If you read what the nobles wrote, some of them said clearly that they fought because they loved fighting. It was the greatest thrill they ever had. I don’t like this option for our future, but I can’t rule out the possibility that war might once again be preferable to peace, if there actually is no more progress to be made and nothing to be done.
The answers to these questions also have a bearing on whether it is possible for God, in the long run, to be selfish. It seems that God would be the first person to have his desires saturated, and enter into this difficult position where it is hard to imagine how to want anything. I can imagine a universe, rather like the Buddhist universe, in which various gods, like bubbles, successively float to the top, and then burst into nothingness, from not caring anymore. I can also imagine an equilibrium, in which there are many gods, because the greater power than one acquires, the less interest one has in preserving that power.
To ask what God should do to make people happy, I would begin by asking whether happiness or pleasure are coherent concepts in a future in which every person had a Godbot to fulfill their wishes. (This question has been addressed many times in science fiction, but with little imagination.) If the answer is no, then perhaps God should be “unkind”, and prevent desire-saturation dynamics from arising. (But see the last paragraph of this comment for another possibility.)
What things give us the most pleasure today? I would say, sex, creative activity, social activity, learning, and games.
Elaborating on sexual pleasure probably leads to wireheading. I don’t like wireheading, because it fails my most basic ethical principle, which is that resources should be used to increase local complexity. Valuing wireheading qualia also leads to the conclusion that one should tile the universe with wireheaders, which I find revolting, although I don’t know how to justify that feeling.
Social activity is difficult to analyze, especially if interpersonal boundaries, and the level of the cognitive hierarchy to relate to as a “person”, are unclear. I would begin by asking whether we would get any social pleasure from interacting with someone whose thoughts and decision processes were completely known to us.
Creative activity and learning may or may not have infinite possibilities. Can we continue constructing more and more complex concepts, to infinity? If so, then knowledge is probably also infinite, for as soon as we have constructed a new concept, we have something new to learn about. If not, then knowledge—not specific knowledge of what you had for lunch today, but general knowledge—may be limited. Creative activity may have infinite possibilities, even if knowledge is finite.
(The answer to whether intelligence has infinite potential has many other consequences; notably, Bayesian reasoners are likely only in a universe in which there are finite useful concepts, because otherwise it will be preferable to be a non-Bayesian reasoning over more complex concepts using faster algorithms.)
Games largely rely on uncertainty, improving mastery, and competition. Most of what we get out of “life”, besides relationships and direct hormonal pleasures like sex, food, and fighting, is a lot like what we get from playing a game. One fear is that life will become like playing chess when you already know the entire game tree.
If we are so unfortunate as to live in a universe in which knowledge is finite, then conflict may serve as a substitute for ignorance in providing us a challenge. A future of endless war may be preferable to a future in which someone has won. It may even be preferable to a future of endless peace. If you study the middle ages of Europe, you will probably at some point ask, “Why did these idiots spend so much time fighting, when they could have all become wealthier if they simply stopped fighting long enough for their economies to grow?” Well, those people didn’t know that economies could grow. They didn’t believe that there was any further progress to be made in any domain—art, science, government—until Jesus returned. They didn’t have any personal challenges; the nobility often weren’t even allowed to do work. If you read what the nobles wrote, some of them said clearly that they fought because they loved fighting. It was the greatest thrill they ever had. I don’t like this option for our future, but I can’t rule out the possibility that war might once again be preferable to peace, if there actually is no more progress to be made and nothing to be done.
The answers to these questions also have a bearing on whether it is possible for God, in the long run, to be selfish. It seems that God would be the first person to have his desires saturated, and enter into this difficult position where it is hard to imagine how to want anything. I can imagine a universe, rather like the Buddhist universe, in which various gods, like bubbles, successively float to the top, and then burst into nothingness, from not caring anymore. I can also imagine an equilibrium, in which there are many gods, because the greater power than one acquires, the less interest one has in preserving that power.