Maybe we are really socially isolated then, but as a couple we were never really interested in what will other people think if we do something (we both are the not having many friends type), and we would have jumped on the option of having an easy baby, no learning difficulties, not crying during the night, and (..). Granted, we would not edit things like hair or eye color because it would feel like an unwelcome intrusion into other person’s individuality even when the person does not exist yet.
You seem to have a very bizarre idea of what constitutes someone’s “individuality” since you appear to be more concerned about superficial things like eye and hair color as opposed to things like personality and learning style.
Precisely—individuality is in things that don’t matter. Learning style is something we should simply be efficient at. Parallel: it would be good if we all ate the One Perfect Nutritious Diet but customize it with sauces and spices: being individual in the things that don’t matter. More realistic: we all ideally dress according to the weather as not being cold or hot matters, but choose colors of clothes that express our individuality because color does not matter. What is bizarre about it?
That’s not what I mean by “individuality” and not I suspect not what most people mean by it either. How about you explain why your definition of “individuality” is something anyone should care about.
Also, would you really not mind if I forcibly overrode your memories and personality as long as your hair and eye color stayed the same?
How about you explain why your definition of “individuality” is something anyone should care about.
At this point I should admit I have not really invested an immense amount of time into figuring this out, but still may be useful: when we value something merely because it is different or because it was freely chosen, it suggests it is not much better than other things or else we would like it for its actualy betterness. So people may customize their body or car to look a bit different than most others so that they can show they are different individuals (cue Life of Brian here) or that they choose some things autonomously instead of accepting the default choice, but all these things are not so important.
However when something is important we usually want it the best, we don’t want 100 different ways of manufacturing nails just that every factory can play special snowflake, we want one most efficient way and every factory adopting it. When things matter, and some things are better than others, then reasonable people don’t play special snowflakery and don’t go for an individual, custom solution just to show off their non-conformism.
So I have a generic vision of reasonable people wanting to do things the best way, uniformly, but when something does not matter much or one way is not so much better than the others then they relax the unformity and it is okay to play special snowflakery and customize everything and express our oh so awesome nonconformism in them.
I think this must make sense, I am just not so sure anymore that it is really relevant to the question. As I have to admit things like memories do not fall either of these buckets. As for overriding my personality, well, if highly inefficient ways of dealing with some problems are considered part of one’s personality (i.e. habits) why do you think I am even here on LW? That is pretty much the whole point. This whole website is all about trying to get as close to the self-rewriting AI as our biological hardware allows.
However when something is important we usually want it the best, we don’t want 100 different ways of manufacturing nails just that every factory can play special snowflake, we want one most efficient way and every factory adopting it.
Assuming we know in advance what that is, and that it won’t change as circumstances change. The point of individuality is that in general the only way to find out the efficiency of a method is by trying it. Hence if a factory owner has a new crazy idea for how to manufacture nails, let him try it (without having to convince a panel in “nail manufacturing experts” first).
“Special snowflakeness” is want happens when “individuality” becomes a lost purpose. The “individuality only in irrelevant things” that you are arguing for is what happens when it becomes a really lost purpose.
You seem to have a very bizarre idea of what constitutes someone’s “individuality” since you appear to be more concerned about superficial things like eye and hair color as opposed to things like personality and learning style.
Precisely—individuality is in things that don’t matter. Learning style is something we should simply be efficient at. Parallel: it would be good if we all ate the One Perfect Nutritious Diet but customize it with sauces and spices: being individual in the things that don’t matter. More realistic: we all ideally dress according to the weather as not being cold or hot matters, but choose colors of clothes that express our individuality because color does not matter. What is bizarre about it?
That’s not what I mean by “individuality” and not I suspect not what most people mean by it either. How about you explain why your definition of “individuality” is something anyone should care about.
Also, would you really not mind if I forcibly overrode your memories and personality as long as your hair and eye color stayed the same?
At this point I should admit I have not really invested an immense amount of time into figuring this out, but still may be useful: when we value something merely because it is different or because it was freely chosen, it suggests it is not much better than other things or else we would like it for its actualy betterness. So people may customize their body or car to look a bit different than most others so that they can show they are different individuals (cue Life of Brian here) or that they choose some things autonomously instead of accepting the default choice, but all these things are not so important.
However when something is important we usually want it the best, we don’t want 100 different ways of manufacturing nails just that every factory can play special snowflake, we want one most efficient way and every factory adopting it. When things matter, and some things are better than others, then reasonable people don’t play special snowflakery and don’t go for an individual, custom solution just to show off their non-conformism.
So I have a generic vision of reasonable people wanting to do things the best way, uniformly, but when something does not matter much or one way is not so much better than the others then they relax the unformity and it is okay to play special snowflakery and customize everything and express our oh so awesome nonconformism in them.
I think this must make sense, I am just not so sure anymore that it is really relevant to the question. As I have to admit things like memories do not fall either of these buckets. As for overriding my personality, well, if highly inefficient ways of dealing with some problems are considered part of one’s personality (i.e. habits) why do you think I am even here on LW? That is pretty much the whole point. This whole website is all about trying to get as close to the self-rewriting AI as our biological hardware allows.
Assuming we know in advance what that is, and that it won’t change as circumstances change. The point of individuality is that in general the only way to find out the efficiency of a method is by trying it. Hence if a factory owner has a new crazy idea for how to manufacture nails, let him try it (without having to convince a panel in “nail manufacturing experts” first).
“Special snowflakeness” is want happens when “individuality” becomes a lost purpose. The “individuality only in irrelevant things” that you are arguing for is what happens when it becomes a really lost purpose.