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On 2015-09-26 01:43, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:<br>
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<div>It's interesting to speculate on what sort of people and what
sort of society we would have if it were a trivial matter to
reprogram ourselves, so that our personalities and other
psychological attributes were self-chosen. Would we make
ourselves fair, hard-working, compassionate - all the things
that people, religious and secular institutions throughout
history aspire to, but only sometimes attain? I doubt that many
people would actually want to make themselves evil, but maybe
they would, in order to dominate the kind and gentle majority -
who might then alter themselves in order to resist. It's hard to
predict what would actually happen.</div>
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<br>
Funny that you mention that. One of my ongoing projects is actually
about running game-theoretic simulations about a reprogrammable
society. And it is surprisingly unpredictable, even with very simple
assumptions. <br>
<br>
One important realization is that even if people update themselves
to have values that would make them happier (given their current
values) they might actually not become happier, since the collective
effect on the society may reduce their happiness even with updated
values. And this can happen even if society is becoming "better" in
an objective way (more cooperation).<br>
<br>
Another thing is that our current actual mix of social value
orientations appear to be a fairly solid attractor state: I do not
think small changes in outlook can destabilize it (unlike my
co-author; we are testing it now). <br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University</pre>
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