2012 June Conserving Utility Functions Conservatives Religion Omohundro
<p>Jun 23, 2012 10:49 AM
 
letter to Steve Omohundro:
 
Hi Steve,
A light turned on yesterday abt conserving utility functions....
Look at the huge efforts that fundamentalists in various religions make to
conserve their utility functions:
written in stone: 10 commandments;
bible: this is the ONE book you need and BTW – it’s the word of God.
punishments: burn in hell
rewards; ever-lasting bliss; 72 virgins etc.
religious schools; strict supervision; no outside influence
home schooling (and beatings in the old days); restrict access to outside info
tight knit communities reinforcing beliefs (live in isolated places: utah;
Idaho; Jonestown; Afghanistan; small towns in South)
*
But, it’s not only religions:
US Constitution: written; beatified... almost cast in stone
almost impossible to modify; strict interpretation;
Supreme Court upholds it; conservatives are there to assure STRICT interpretation
*
Please note also:
I’m not saying that this is always and forever, necessarily BAD;
rather, it’s that liberals undertake a huge intellectual and judgmental challenge
involving weighing tradeoffs and probabilities.
*
Consider, conservatives’ characterizations of liberals:
ANYTHING GOES;
what’s it going to be tomorrow: torturing children is ok
marrying your dog or horse should be a constit. right
children should be allowed to insert pleasure electrodes;
why stop abortion at 20 weeks or so... why not newborns;
scolding your child should be punishable by imprisonment;
having a baby should require a license... etc.
*
I was launched on this current track because I’m back thinking about the
role of AIs in human affairs for a book I’ve been working on for a number of years.
Basically, its hard to see AIs in any role other than
presenting OPTIONS to human decision makers during the near-in future
(25 years or so – I’m talking about important decisions)
Bob
PS: Cover story in July Sci American could have been written by YOU:
Evolution of Cooperation by Martin Nowak.</p>