From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Mon Jun 16 2003 - 10:40:46 MDT
Robin Hanson wrote:
>
> Of course that raises the question of why believing in the truth should
> have such an overwhelming importance, moral or otherwise. Some
> plausibly argue that it is more moral to be loyal to one's group, even
> if this means that your beliefs will be biased, just as they believe it
> is more moral to give charity to members of your group, even if this
> means that worse off outsiders go without. I have to admit to while I
> think that there are few things more important than believing the
> truth, I can offer only disappointingly weak moral arguments to justify
> this.
Here are some of my favorite answers:
* "Because I value the truth as a thing in itself."
* "If the sky is blue, it's blue. If I think that's true, how could
I believe something else just because I wanted to? That's not how my mind
is wired."
* "Because knowing the truth is the best and only means of achieving
the goals I care about."
* "Because even the process whereby I *decide* my goals depends on
finding the actual answers (as opposed to the comforting or convenient
answers) to logical or factual questions."
* "Because if I wrapped myself up in a private world, severing my
connection to outside reality, I would destroy my potential to grow as a
person."
* "Darn, I don't have enough knowledge to answer that question. I'd
better go get some."
* "Because without accurate knowledge, I'd have no way of knowing how
dangerous it was to be ignorant."
-- Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/ Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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