how exactly would you distinguish the universe in which we live in from the universe in which human moral change was determined by something like a random walk through value space?
If historical civilizations agree with us about as much as contemporary ones. That said, there has no more been a constant upward slope than there has been such a slope in technology of equality, we are just unusual due to the enlightenment, I think.
EDIT: I think you may be assuming that we perfectly understand what we want. If I persuade a racist all humans are people, have I changed his utility function?
He gets disutility from people suffering. If Jews are people, then he shouldn’t torture them to death—but he didn’t suddenly decide to value Jews, just realised they are people.
If historical civilizations agree with us about as much as contemporary ones. That said, there has no more been a constant upward slope than there has been such a slope in technology of equality, we are just unusual due to the enlightenment, I think.
EDIT: I think you may be assuming that we perfectly understand what we want. If I persuade a racist all humans are people, have I changed his utility function?
Do you to the first approximation equate moral progress with more equality?
I would consider it one form of such progress, yes.
EDIT:
That was a genuine question, incidentally. I really want to know your answer.
Can you taboo what you mean by a person’s utility function?
How they decide the relative desirability of a given situation.
Said procedure tends not to resemble a utility function.
Huh?
He gets disutility from people suffering. If Jews are people, then he shouldn’t torture them to death—but he didn’t suddenly decide to value Jews, just realised they are people.