[ExI] morality

[Tara Maya]

When AI show a capacity to apply the Golden Rule -- and its dark mirror, which is an Eye for an Eye (altruistic revenge) -- then we can say they have a consciousness similar enough to humans to be treated as humans.

The Golden Rule cannot apply to chickens or fish or snails, because it is not reciprocal. (Nor should we put lions on trial for murdering gazelles.)

Those who attempt to extend it to animals (for instance, Jains and Buddhists) only succeed in empty virtue signally. For instance, historically, in India, one finds Jain and Buddhist kingdoms in which their monks walked around trying not to step on bugs or breath in gnats, out of "universal love," while meanwhile those kingdoms continued to practice the caste system and wage religious wars against one another. The kings and ordinary people couldn't actually put into practice the excessive universalism of equal love for ALL creatures. Treating the life of a fly with dignity only led to human lives being treated like crap, while those who enabled it felt righteous.

I say that the Golden Rule has a dark mirror because I believe that's how it evolved. We humans domesticated each other by remembering the past behavior of individuals and rewarding those who were kind to us... or to others... and punishing those who hurt us... or who hurt others. Holding violators of the Golden Rule accountable is just as critical for enforcing mutual altruism as is kindness and generosity. 

Remorse and forgiveness are the bridge to allow those who would normally deserve punishment to walk a bridge back into an altruistic, high trust community. I do believe we should lean towards forgiveness. But we can't completely sacrifice justice (punishment of the guilty) or the whole system falls apart. 

And I believe justice must be at the level of the individual whenever possible, but unfortunately, we are still in a world where nations invade other nations... and so people suffer as collectives, unfair as it may be. I'd rather put Putin on trial than watch another 20,000 Russian young men die, but we can't simply say, "Well, let's let Russia take control of someone else's country because we should be pacifists."

The Golden Rule is absolutely a strong foundation, but the devil is always in the details.


Tara Maya




> On May 16, 2023, at 1:07 PM, Jason Resch via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
> This idea leads immediately to something like the silver/golden rule, a moral law which is nearly universal across different times and places across human history:
> 
> "That which you hate to be done to you, do not do to another."
> -- Papyrus scrolls found in ancient Egypt (664 – 323 B.C.)
> 
> "Killing a living being is killing one’s own self; showing compassion to a living being is showing compassion to oneself."
> -- The Saman Suttam verse 151
> 
> "Love your neighbor as yourself."
> -- Book of Leviticus 19:18
> 
> "The most righteous person is the one who consents for other people what he consents for himself, and who dislikes for them what he dislikes for himself."
> -- Mohammad in the Hadith
> 
> "Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss."
> -- The Taoist scripture T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien (12th century)
> 

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