[ExI] People are Genuine Altruists, Sociopaths, or Confused/Moody

[Lee Corbin]

Damien writes

>>(2) if it was revealed to you that you were living in a simulation
>>      wherein you were the only conscious person, and everyone
>>      else merely a puppet under the manipulation of a cold,
>>      distant, infinitely calculating entity who had no emotions
>>      whatsoever... would your behavior towards others change
>>      at all?
>>
>>      If you can answer yes to either (1) or (2), you possess genuine
>>      altruism.
> 
> This has got to be wrong, and suggests a flaw in your definition of 
> altruism (which I think must embody a benefit to some other person 
> with interests) [Yes].

Well, I agree with that, and with any implications of it that I can think of.

> If you treat your toaster well, are you more altruistic than someone
> who never cleans it or even smashes it on the bench when it burns the toast?

Certainly not. I am claiming that if you *did* find yourself living in the
kind of simulation described above, and your behavior *did* change
as a result, then you are a genuine altruist since there are now in your
presense no feeling or conscious entities whatsoever who your actions
can affect. Thus there is no longer the behavior evinced by the genuine
altruist, e.g. leaving tips in restaurants he or she will never visit again,
and letting people go ahead of you in traffic.

For example, it took some time, but I finally managed to prove (at least
to myself) that I am a genuine altruist because I *do* let people out of
crowded parking lots ahead of me, and I *do* leave tips in restaurants
I know I'll never visit again, and I would immediately stop doing that
in a simulation where I was the only genuine person. I thought of the
scenario (which I call the "VR-Solipsist") as a means to determine
whether or not I was a genuine altruist[1].

Lee

[1] Altruism based either upon kin selection or reciprocation, though
very real, very powerful, and very beneficial to our world, does not
count as what is here being called "genuine altruism".