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The idea that genes have a will and that there is anything reasonable, or generally positive about reproduction seems flawed. Its biological machinery which hap

The idea that genes have a will and that there is anything reasonable, or generally positive about reproduction seems flawed. Its biological machinery which happens to optimize for replication. I am not thankful to my forebears for reproducing. Their choice to reproduce is of neutral merit. I believe that (somewhat conditionally) sentient beings deserve to prosper and shouldn't bow to genetics and tradition in the quest to do so. This idea that the purpose of existence is to fuck and have babies is straight out of the religion/pickup artistry playbook... I prefer a less bleak purpose than that. If anyone really internalizes/believes that they're just here to spread their "seed"... like, I just feel sorry for you.

janto 5y ago
Well, it's kind of a problem then that, as a human, all that you value as "good" has been determined by what has been advantageous to persistence of your genetic lineage. You may find joy and fulfillment in pursuing the proxies such as love or even truth, but you're fooling yourself if you think it's not because you are at the core biological. We forego bowing to genetics and tradition at our peril. How would we convince a sentient super AI to "not be evil" or even describe to it what that means?
- catlifeonmars 5y ago
  What is the “peril” you refer to?
  - janto 5y ago
    Referring to AI alignment and specification of an objective that does not include the prioritization of our genetics somehow.
    - catlifeonmars 5y ago
      Ok I’ll bite. I’ll assume for a moment that, as you postulate, morality is purely a function of genetic fitness. Even if that was true, genetic adaptation occurs at evolutionary time scales. In a rapidly changing environment, genetics will always be out of phase with what is optimal. In other words, any sense of what is “good” or “evil” will always be outdated by hundreds of thousands of years at the least.
      - janto 5y ago
        I guess I'd say that our genetically encoded behavior has a good track record over many millions of years of latching onto what "the right thing" is. That's quite a few chunks of 100k years that it was "outdated" yet still did ok given the conditions. I agree our slow-to-respond genetically encoded behavior/values might not be fully optimal for survival in the modern world. And that there are now threats ("evils" maybe) that our emotions fail to correctly respond to.

janto 5y ago

Well, it's kind of a problem then that, as a human, all that you value as "good" has been determined by what has been advantageous to persistence of your genetic lineage. You may find joy and fulfillment in pursuing the proxies such as love or even truth, but you're fooling yourself if you think it's not because you are at the core biological. We forego bowing to genetics and tradition at our peril. How would we convince a sentient super AI to "not be evil" or even describe to it what that means?

catlifeonmars 5y ago
What is the “peril” you refer to?
- janto 5y ago
  Referring to AI alignment and specification of an objective that does not include the prioritization of our genetics somehow.
  - catlifeonmars 5y ago
    Ok I’ll bite. I’ll assume for a moment that, as you postulate, morality is purely a function of genetic fitness. Even if that was true, genetic adaptation occurs at evolutionary time scales. In a rapidly changing environment, genetics will always be out of phase with what is optimal. In other words, any sense of what is “good” or “evil” will always be outdated by hundreds of thousands of years at the least.
    - janto 5y ago
      I guess I'd say that our genetically encoded behavior has a good track record over many millions of years of latching onto what "the right thing" is. That's quite a few chunks of 100k years that it was "outdated" yet still did ok given the conditions. I agree our slow-to-respond genetically encoded behavior/values might not be fully optimal for survival in the modern world. And that there are now threats ("evils" maybe) that our emotions fail to correctly respond to.