I’m curious how you’d see moral and long-term considerations playing into this. For instance: 1. Saving for retirement produces no experienced benefit for many years and will only ever complete a single investment cycle in a lifetime. 2. Donating to or working on global health, x-risk, etc. produces no experienced benefit ever in most cases. Yet, in both cases, individuals seem capable of exercising willpower to do these activities for many years.
I can think of 3 models currently that could explain this: 1. They just are “dead willpower”, but your willpower system gets enough income from shorter term investments to allow it to continue to invest in things that will not pay out any time soon. 2. Your willpower system has “stock” that gives it value based on the prediction of experienced benefit that hasn’t been experienced yet. 3. You experience satisfaction from seeing the 401k numbers go up or feeling like a moral person and that is the payout your willpower gets.
How do you see moral and long-term considerations interacting with your toy model?
I’m curious how you’d see moral and long-term considerations playing into this. For instance:
1. Saving for retirement produces no experienced benefit for many years and will only ever complete a single investment cycle in a lifetime.
2. Donating to or working on global health, x-risk, etc. produces no experienced benefit ever in most cases.
Yet, in both cases, individuals seem capable of exercising willpower to do these activities for many years.
I can think of 3 models currently that could explain this:
1. They just are “dead willpower”, but your willpower system gets enough income from shorter term investments to allow it to continue to invest in things that will not pay out any time soon.
2. Your willpower system has “stock” that gives it value based on the prediction of experienced benefit that hasn’t been experienced yet.
3. You experience satisfaction from seeing the 401k numbers go up or feeling like a moral person and that is the payout your willpower gets.
How do you see moral and long-term considerations interacting with your toy model?