Re: Rational base for morals

KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Tue, 12 Jan 1999 22:44:44 +0100

KPJ wrote:
|Simply put: "Do not to others what you do not wish them do to you."

It appears as if den Otter <neosapient@geocities.com> wrote:
|
|Unless, of course, you happen to be vastly more powerful. Then
|there is no _rational_ reason to restrict your actions.

One might wish to avoid killing random less powerful entities if one finds them worth avoid killing for some reason. As a matter of fact, one would only kill them if one had a rational reason to do so. This assumes of course that one only makes rational decisions.

Personally, I find no reason to kill off less powerful entities unless they try to hurt me. Their species would hardly become more sentient by killing off them if they disturb me. If they do, I could simply remove them from the premises.

My wiring makes me wish to increase my knowledge of the world. A greater number of species and individuals in the world allows for more complexity and thus makes the world more interesting to me. This would indicate to me that I should avoid killing off less powerful entities, since I find pleasure in increasing my knowledge of the world, and their evolution to a higher power would make them and/or their species more interesting later.

If you lack this incentive your mileage may vary, naturally.