If I was the author of this series, I tend to think I would have this post be about causality and goals or causality and utility functions rather than causality and moral responsibility. I did not spend the time to see if Eliezer’s post still makes sense if “moral responsibility” is everywhere replaced with “goal” but that would be a worthwhile thing to try IMHO. (The definition of “goal” would have to be expanded a bit to include what in normal speech is usually referred to as systems of goals, preferences or desires.)
I consider my moral responsibilities or my moral obligations to be more or less the same thing as my goals, but other readers will not make that identification, and since everyone has goals but not everyone sees themselves as having moral responsibilites, speaking of goals would IMHO make the post more general and probably acceptable to more people.
In my conception of the laws of rationality, “minds have goals,” comes right after, “cause-and-effect relationships are real.” Free will is in there somewhere too.
If I was the author of this series, I tend to think I would have this post be about causality and goals or causality and utility functions rather than causality and moral responsibility. I did not spend the time to see if Eliezer’s post still makes sense if “moral responsibility” is everywhere replaced with “goal” but that would be a worthwhile thing to try IMHO. (The definition of “goal” would have to be expanded a bit to include what in normal speech is usually referred to as systems of goals, preferences or desires.)
I consider my moral responsibilities or my moral obligations to be more or less the same thing as my goals, but other readers will not make that identification, and since everyone has goals but not everyone sees themselves as having moral responsibilites, speaking of goals would IMHO make the post more general and probably acceptable to more people.
In my conception of the laws of rationality, “minds have goals,” comes right after, “cause-and-effect relationships are real.” Free will is in there somewhere too.