I think I understand your point better now, and I agree with it.
My conscious, deliberative, speaking self definitely wants to be rid of akrasia and to reduce time discounting. If I could self modify to remove akrasia, I definitely would. But I don’t want to get rid of emotional empathy, or filial love, or the love of cats that makes me sometimes feed strays. I wouldn’t do it if I could. This isn’t something I derive from or defend by higher principles, it’s just how I am.
I have other emotions I would reduce or even remove, given the chance. Like anger and jealousy. These can be moral emotions no less than empathy—righteous anger, justice and fairness. It stands to reason some people might feel this way about any other emotion or desire, including empathy. When these things already aren’t part of the values their conscious self identifies with, they want to reduce or discard them.
And since I can be verbally, rationally convinced to want things, I can be convinced to want to discard emotions I previously didn’t.
It’s a good thing that we’re very bad at actually changing our emotional makeup. The evolution of values over time can lead to some scary attractor states. And I wouldn’t want to permanently discard one feeling during a brief period of obsession with something else! Because actual changes take a lot of time and effort, we usually only go through with the ones we’re really resolved about, which is a good condition to have. (Also, how can you want to develop an emotion you’ve never had? Do you just end up with very few emotions?)
Agreed. I’ll add 2 things that support of your point, though.
First, the Milgram experiment seems to suggest that even seemingly antisocial impulses like stubbornness can be extremely valuable. Sticking to core values rather than conforming likely led more people to resist the Nazis.
Also, I didn’t bring it up earlier because it undermines my point, but apparently sociopaths have smaller amygdalas than normal, while kidney donors have larger ones, and empathy is linked to that region of the brain. So, we probably could reduce or remove emotional empathy and/or cognitive empathy if we really wanted to. However, I’m not at all inclined to inflict brain damage on myself, even if it could somehow be targeted enough to not interfere with cognitive empathy or anything else.
So, more generally, even reversible modification worries me, and the idea of permanently changing our values scares the shit out of me. For humanity as a whole, although not necessarily small groups of individuals as a means to an end, I don’t endorse most modifications. I would much rather we retain a desire we approve of but which the laws of physics prevent us from satisfying, than to remove that value and be fulfilled.
I think I understand your point better now, and I agree with it.
My conscious, deliberative, speaking self definitely wants to be rid of akrasia and to reduce time discounting. If I could self modify to remove akrasia, I definitely would. But I don’t want to get rid of emotional empathy, or filial love, or the love of cats that makes me sometimes feed strays. I wouldn’t do it if I could. This isn’t something I derive from or defend by higher principles, it’s just how I am.
I have other emotions I would reduce or even remove, given the chance. Like anger and jealousy. These can be moral emotions no less than empathy—righteous anger, justice and fairness. It stands to reason some people might feel this way about any other emotion or desire, including empathy. When these things already aren’t part of the values their conscious self identifies with, they want to reduce or discard them.
And since I can be verbally, rationally convinced to want things, I can be convinced to want to discard emotions I previously didn’t.
It’s a good thing that we’re very bad at actually changing our emotional makeup. The evolution of values over time can lead to some scary attractor states. And I wouldn’t want to permanently discard one feeling during a brief period of obsession with something else! Because actual changes take a lot of time and effort, we usually only go through with the ones we’re really resolved about, which is a good condition to have. (Also, how can you want to develop an emotion you’ve never had? Do you just end up with very few emotions?)
Agreed. I’ll add 2 things that support of your point, though.
First, the Milgram experiment seems to suggest that even seemingly antisocial impulses like stubbornness can be extremely valuable. Sticking to core values rather than conforming likely led more people to resist the Nazis.
Also, I didn’t bring it up earlier because it undermines my point, but apparently sociopaths have smaller amygdalas than normal, while kidney donors have larger ones, and empathy is linked to that region of the brain. So, we probably could reduce or remove emotional empathy and/or cognitive empathy if we really wanted to. However, I’m not at all inclined to inflict brain damage on myself, even if it could somehow be targeted enough to not interfere with cognitive empathy or anything else.
So, more generally, even reversible modification worries me, and the idea of permanently changing our values scares the shit out of me. For humanity as a whole, although not necessarily small groups of individuals as a means to an end, I don’t endorse most modifications. I would much rather we retain a desire we approve of but which the laws of physics prevent us from satisfying, than to remove that value and be fulfilled.