8 Comments

Beliefs can pay rent without necessarily directly resulting in anticipated experiences. They could only figure into broader networks of thoughts and concepts that form a unified and internally consistent whole that pays (or tends to pay) rent. Perhaps one might say, then, that models or worldviews should pay rent, even if they have some spandrels that don't, themselves, pay rent.

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Aug 23, 2023Liked by Bentham's Bulldog

Once I saw a tweet that endorsed “verificationism, but as a theory of whether I care if a sentence is true.” I haven’t clicked through to read Eliezer’s article, but it sounds like he might be sympathetic to that view.

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"It is wrong to torture other people" independently of any ethical discussion, can lead unfortunately to some anticipated experiences or some effective empirical experiences like Gestapo in France or Pol Pot in Cambodge, where the results are bad for the vistims ... and bad for the executioner

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I feel like I could somehow realise I'd been wrong on 2 and 5.

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Perhaps one ought not to spend very much time concerned with beliefs that cannot pay rent in anticipated experience. You in particular might be happier if you spent less time thinking about things like your five examples. Although, number four can be rephrased in a way that does pay rent by saying that you can anticipate feeling bad about yourself if you cause harm to sentient beings.

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> It’s wrong to torture other people.

Doesn't this mean "the world is on net happer if you don't torture other people", according to you? If so, this is going to cash out in anticipated experience.

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