I think plenty of people intrinsically enjoy having power over others, and the ability to lord that power over them.
What they enjoy is the feeling of enjoyment, right? What if someone can get the feeling of lording power over others—or an even more intense version of that feeling—without actually lording power over others?
The concept of “values” isn’t clearly defined for humans, but it seems to me that it’s more accurate to say that a sadist’s “terminal value” is the feeling of enjoyment they get from power, not the power itself. The power is a means to achieve the good feelings.
For example, if a sadist started feeling awful every time they lorded power over someone, they’d probably stop doing it.
Eh, I think that way lies wireheading, and while I do think some people might choose to wirehead, I would be pretty surprised if it’s the majority. Like, going down this route it’s very tempting to label every preference to actually be about the enjoyment of having that preference fulfilled, and I think that doesn’t really work.
Thinking out loud here but I can see a classification of preferences into two types:
if it didn’t make me feel good, I wouldn’t want it anymore
if it didn’t make me feel good, I’d still want it
Watching movies is a type 1 preference (with some exceptions): people want to watch movies that they enjoy watching. If a movie is bad, I’ll stop watching it.
For me, donating money to EA causes is a type 2 preference. It doesn’t make me feel good, but it’s still important to me. Parents taking care of their children is a type 2 preference: a lot of times it sucks, but they do it anyway.
I think “lording power over others” is more of a type 1 preference.
That said, I would rather not bet the fate of the world on me being right about this.
What they enjoy is the feeling of enjoyment, right? What if someone can get the feeling of lording power over others—or an even more intense version of that feeling—without actually lording power over others?
The concept of “values” isn’t clearly defined for humans, but it seems to me that it’s more accurate to say that a sadist’s “terminal value” is the feeling of enjoyment they get from power, not the power itself. The power is a means to achieve the good feelings.
For example, if a sadist started feeling awful every time they lorded power over someone, they’d probably stop doing it.
Eh, I think that way lies wireheading, and while I do think some people might choose to wirehead, I would be pretty surprised if it’s the majority. Like, going down this route it’s very tempting to label every preference to actually be about the enjoyment of having that preference fulfilled, and I think that doesn’t really work.
See also: The Stamp Collector
Thinking out loud here but I can see a classification of preferences into two types:
if it didn’t make me feel good, I wouldn’t want it anymore
if it didn’t make me feel good, I’d still want it
Watching movies is a type 1 preference (with some exceptions): people want to watch movies that they enjoy watching. If a movie is bad, I’ll stop watching it.
For me, donating money to EA causes is a type 2 preference. It doesn’t make me feel good, but it’s still important to me. Parents taking care of their children is a type 2 preference: a lot of times it sucks, but they do it anyway.
I think “lording power over others” is more of a type 1 preference.
That said, I would rather not bet the fate of the world on me being right about this.