[ExI] ethics vs intelligence

[Stefano Vaj]

On 13 September 2012 14:45, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 13, 2012 at 1:30 PM, Stefano Vaj wrote:

> The moral convictions of each of us are not "rationally compelled", but
> are
> > not arbitrary either: they simply reflect our personal deepest nature,
> "what
> > we really are", and we are not really free to choose them randomly any
> more
> > than we can be somebody else.
>
> Sorry, but I don't think that theory works in practice.
> People change their moral convictions all the time.



> If you join the $cienologists then I guarantee your moral convictions
> will change very quickly to fit in with your new peer group.
>
> Now you may say, 'Ahh but they didn't change their deepest nature,
> only their behaviour'.
>

No. People change their convictions - sometimes this is even easier than
changing one's behaviour, as some of us insist here - but this is simply a
reflection of the fact that they obviously evolve with time as their
convictions evolve.

It remains nevertheless true that some people go into Scientology and some
other do not. Random factors play a role here, of course, but what you are
*now* represents at least "some" form of constraint of what you are going
to become.

This is interesting in transhumanist terms, because it dispels the myth
that technology, especially biotechnologies, is going to make us more
similar, since everybody will have access to identical enhancements, for
their progeny if not for themselves.

In fact, this is a possibility for a world making an ideal of conformity to
"universal" models.

But as long as people remain different and diversity is seen as a value,
people and societies alike will want to change themselves in diverging
directions, according to their tastes and inclinations (what is, more
emphatically, their "identity" and their "destiny", as in Achilles' choice
to become Achilles after all rather than an obscure octuagenarian).

And even given a much higher opportunity to influence one's own tastes and
inclinations, the decision to do so and the influence sought again derive,
iteratively, of what you (already) are.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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