I strongly agree with these comments regarding is-ought. To add a little, talking about winning/losing, effective strategies or game theory assumes a specific utility function. To say Maria Teresa “lost” we need to first agree that death and pain are bad. And even the concept of “survival” is not really well-defined. What does it mean to survive? If humanity is replaced by “descendants” which are completely alien or even monstrous from our point of view, did humanity “survive”? Surviving means little without thriving and both concepts are subjective and require already having some kind of value system to specify.
I’m raising a question more than making an argument. Are there futures that would seem to present-day people completely alien or even monstrous, that nevertheless its inhabitants would consider a vast improvement over our present, their past? Would these hypothetical descendants regard as mere paperclipping, an ambition to fill the universe forever with nothing more than people comfortably like us?
“Of Life only is there no end; and though of its million starry mansions many are empty and many still unbuilt, and though its vast domain is as yet unbearably desert, my seed shall one day fill it and master its matter to its uttermost confines. And for what may be beyond, the eyesight of Lilith is too short. It is enough that there is a beyond.”
I strongly agree with these comments regarding is-ought. To add a little, talking about winning/losing, effective strategies or game theory assumes a specific utility function. To say Maria Teresa “lost” we need to first agree that death and pain are bad. And even the concept of “survival” is not really well-defined. What does it mean to survive? If humanity is replaced by “descendants” which are completely alien or even monstrous from our point of view, did humanity “survive”? Surviving means little without thriving and both concepts are subjective and require already having some kind of value system to specify.
Og see 21st century. Og say, “Where is caveman?”
3-year-old you sees present-day you...
Present you sees 90-year-old you...
90-year-old you sees your 300-year-old great great grandchildren...
“After, therefore the fulfillment of.” Is this your argument, or is there something more implied that I’m not seeing?
As it is, this seems to Prove Too Much.
I’m raising a question more than making an argument. Are there futures that would seem to present-day people completely alien or even monstrous, that nevertheless its inhabitants would consider a vast improvement over our present, their past? Would these hypothetical descendants regard as mere paperclipping, an ambition to fill the universe forever with nothing more than people comfortably like us?
“Of Life only is there no end; and though of its million starry mansions many are empty and many still unbuilt, and though its vast domain is as yet unbearably desert, my seed shall one day fill it and master its matter to its uttermost confines. And for what may be beyond, the eyesight of Lilith is too short. It is enough that there is a beyond.”