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

[Harvey Newstrom]

On Monday 01 September 2008 01:27:49 Lee Corbin wrote:
> Why would one *ever* be fair? Or adopt "fairness" as a standard behavior?

Because that is the whole basis of the free market and the exchange of money 
for services.  I want to participate in this type of transaction.  To not play 
fair would be to reject the whole concept of a free-market system, and revert 
to a dog-eat-dog world where the strongest take things from the weak.  I don't 
believe that kind of environment would produce the goods and services I want 
to purchase.  Even if I thought I could steal them more efficiently than buying 
them, there would be less opportunities to do so in an environment where 
merchants regularly got shortchanged.  They would go out of business and I 
would not be able to shop there anymore.  So I want to support them with a 
fair price to keep the flow of goods and services coming my way.

> I see no necessary self-interest component to being fair to others, even
> though in most situations indeed there is. Surely the answer is at least
> in part genuine altruism.

It sounds like you understand my answer, but you don't believe it.  Trust me, 
I don't care to give away my money for free to strangers I will never see 
again.  But I am a good tipper at my local establishments that I frequent, and 
they treat me like an extra special guest whenever they see me.  I am buying 
that kind of service and think my money is well spent.  I am not giving them 
charity.

> Because they do not genuinely have any feelings or emotions or
> any personal thoughts whatsoever, as I said. This cold distant
> entity is going to be vastly *less* affected by your responses
> than you will be by whether the ants in your driveway appear to
> be going rapidly or slowly for the garbage you put out last night,
> and this is the only other even .0001 thinking entity in your world.

Let me change my response to this one.  I thought you were talking about AIs 
with "simulated" feelings versus "real" feelings.  Since your question 
involved discovering that the real world was full of simulated people, I was 
assuming very advanced AIs with human-equivalent complexities.
If you are literally talking about a video game character with no feelings, I 
would not exert any effort toward their happiness.

> Being altruistic is not the same as being genuinely altruistic, (though
> this is a mere terminological point), because altruism is very often
> explained in the literature as most often springing from self-interest.

You've lost me now.   I am not sure the term "altruisim" is being used in a 
consistent way, now that "being altruistic is not the same as being genuinely 
altruistic" and "altruism... springing from self-interest".  The terms seemed 
to have changed mid-stream and/or I am confused about what they mean now.

-- 
Harvey Newstrom <www.HarveyNewstrom.com>
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