To the extent that the orthogonality thesis is philosophy, I don’t think universal paperclips is really usefully discussing it. It doesn’t like, acknowledge moral realist views, right? It just assumes orthogonality.
Does it even have a “manufacture fake moral realist universal paperclipism religion to make humans more compliant” subplot?
Agree that it just assumes it. And because it’s just a game, people are more inclined to grant the premise for purposes of gameplay without feeling like they need to argue against it. So then they get an experience of what it could be like if the orthogonality thesis was correct, regardless of whether they happen to currently agree with it.
So it’s making the argument that “if A (orthogonality thesis), then B (paperclips)”. (With lots of additional assumptions, of course.) And while the game doesn’t establish A, it does mean that if someone does get convinced of A by other means, they’ve now been exposed to the argument that their new position also implies B.
And if we’re talking about procedural rhetoric and concrete illustrations of philosophical thought experiments, let’s not forget Universal Paperclips!
To the extent that the orthogonality thesis is philosophy, I don’t think universal paperclips is really usefully discussing it. It doesn’t like, acknowledge moral realist views, right? It just assumes orthogonality.
Does it even have a “manufacture fake moral realist universal paperclipism religion to make humans more compliant” subplot?
Agree that it just assumes it. And because it’s just a game, people are more inclined to grant the premise for purposes of gameplay without feeling like they need to argue against it. So then they get an experience of what it could be like if the orthogonality thesis was correct, regardless of whether they happen to currently agree with it.
So it’s making the argument that “if A (orthogonality thesis), then B (paperclips)”. (With lots of additional assumptions, of course.) And while the game doesn’t establish A, it does mean that if someone does get convinced of A by other means, they’ve now been exposed to the argument that their new position also implies B.