[ExI] roboburgers to go

[BillK]

On Sun, Sep 29, 2013 at 12:58 PM, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Seriously, that is just moral relativism... and a bunch of facts.
>
> Sure, people have different views on what we really ought to do. But that
> doesn't relativize moral truth any more than the fact that people have had
> different views on the shape of the earth changes what shape it really is.
> There could be a One True Moral System that we may or may not have found.
> The deep question is of course if the OTMS exists, how it exists, and if we
> can know it. In practice, however, moral systems do have sensible and
> actionable ideas that should be followed, especially when several agree with
> each other.
>
>

JUST moral relativism????
Races, nations, with different morality systems tend to disagree quite
violently.
Quote:
The differences between Big-Endians (those who broke their eggs at the
larger end) and Little-Endians had given rise to "six rebellions...
wherein one Emperor lost his life, and another his crown". The
Lilliputian religion says an egg should be broken on the convenient
end, which is now interpreted by the Lilliputians as the smaller end.
The Big-Endians gained favour in Blefuscu.


<snip>
> I have no doubt there are some people doing horrible things who actually
> love their jobs. But if those are rare in the occupation, you have a good
> reason to suspect that the occupation ought to go.
>
>

One of the non-obvious points to outsiders criticizing nasty jobs is
that there are often hidden benefits that those thus employed are
careful not to mention. Strangely you will often find much
competition, closed shops, even waiting lists, for jobs that we
superior beings deem horrible. And it is not always due to extreme
poverty.


>
> Only if you try to impose your morality on others. See the work on the
> ethics of moral enhancement we have done in Oxford: there are plenty of
> things that might be doable that would make people better able to act
> morally without prescribing what morality to believe in.
>
>

Well I can't speak for the god-like beings that stride the hallowed
halls of Oxford :) , but for most people, once they see the light and
manage to obtain a rule book, they take great delight in trying to
persuade other people to use the same rule book. By force, if
necessary, as it is for their own good (obviously!).

BillK