Things I’m pretty sure about: that your possibility 1 is much more likely than 2. That extrapolation is more like resolving internal conflicts in a set of values, not making them change direction altogether. That the only way for a set of values to extrapolate to “good” is if its starting percentage of “good” is high enough to win out.
Things I believe, but with less confidence: that individual desires will often extrapolate to a pretty nasty kind of selfishness (“power corrupts”). That starting from culture also has lots of dangers (like the wokeness or religion that you’re worried about), but a lot of it has been selected in a good direction for a long time, precisely to counteract the selfishness of individuals. So the starting percentage of good in culture might be higher.
Things I’m pretty sure about: that your possibility 1 is much more likely than 2. That extrapolation is more like resolving internal conflicts in a set of values, not making them change direction altogether. That the only way for a set of values to extrapolate to “good” is if its starting percentage of “good” is high enough to win out.
Things I believe, but with less confidence: that individual desires will often extrapolate to a pretty nasty kind of selfishness (“power corrupts”). That starting from culture also has lots of dangers (like the wokeness or religion that you’re worried about), but a lot of it has been selected in a good direction for a long time, precisely to counteract the selfishness of individuals. So the starting percentage of good in culture might be higher.