An interesting thing to note is that, intuitively, it feels like a lot of humans are indifferent about many of their own values. E.g. people know that their values will probably change as they age, and many (though definitely not all) people just kind of shrug their shoulders about this. They know that their values at age 80 are likely to be quite different than their values at age 18, but their reaction to this thought is neither “yay changing values” nor “oh no how can I prevent this”, but rather a “well, that’s just the way it is”.
It depends on what you mean by a change in values. Someone might know, for instance, that when they get older they would be more inclined to be conservative, but that that’s because they act for their own benefit and being conservative is more beneficial to an older person (because it’s pro-wealthy and pro-family and because he’ll have a family and more money then). The average man on the street would say that the older person has “changed his values to become more conservative”. But he really hasn’t changed his intrinsic values, he’s just changed his instrumental values, because those depend on circumstances.
That depends on which of your evaluative judgements we consider to have what levels of noise. If we take a more sophisticated psychological view, it’s actually very well-founded that at least some preferences are formed by our biology, and some others are formed by our early-life experiences, and then others are formed by experiences laid down when we’ve already got the foundations of a personality, and so on. And the “lower layers” are much less prone to change, or at least, to noisy change, to change without some particular life-event behind it.
E.g. people know that their values will probably change as they age, and many (though definitely not all) people just kind of shrug their shoulders about this.
Why is this a problem? I don’t see any particular reason to want to bind the future-you in 50 years time with your current values. Things change, values change as well, that’s normal. Me, for example, I don’t feel any particular compunction to make sure my values either do change or do not change in my future (as long as I’m not being coerced, of course).
An interesting thing to note is that, intuitively, it feels like a lot of humans are indifferent about many of their own values. E.g. people know that their values will probably change as they age, and many (though definitely not all) people just kind of shrug their shoulders about this. They know that their values at age 80 are likely to be quite different than their values at age 18, but their reaction to this thought is neither “yay changing values” nor “oh no how can I prevent this”, but rather a “well, that’s just the way it is”.
It depends on what you mean by a change in values. Someone might know, for instance, that when they get older they would be more inclined to be conservative, but that that’s because they act for their own benefit and being conservative is more beneficial to an older person (because it’s pro-wealthy and pro-family and because he’ll have a family and more money then). The average man on the street would say that the older person has “changed his values to become more conservative”. But he really hasn’t changed his intrinsic values, he’s just changed his instrumental values, because those depend on circumstances.
That depends on which of your evaluative judgements we consider to have what levels of noise. If we take a more sophisticated psychological view, it’s actually very well-founded that at least some preferences are formed by our biology, and some others are formed by our early-life experiences, and then others are formed by experiences laid down when we’ve already got the foundations of a personality, and so on. And the “lower layers” are much less prone to change, or at least, to noisy change, to change without some particular life-event behind it.
Why is this a problem? I don’t see any particular reason to want to bind the future-you in 50 years time with your current values. Things change, values change as well, that’s normal. Me, for example, I don’t feel any particular compunction to make sure my values either do change or do not change in my future (as long as I’m not being coerced, of course).
I didn’t say it was.
Fair point.