Human universals: 6 remarkable things I think are true of nearly all adults

October 20, 2023

Some remarkable things I suspect are true of nearly all adults: 1) We each hold some beliefs that are almost totally non-responsive to evidence involving some combination of our identity (who we are), our group, the nature of reality (e.g., God), or the nature of what’s good. Examples: • Many have an unshakable belief that they are good even as they harm the world (or believe they’re insufficient even though they’re altruistic and productive) • Most have an unshakable belief that t...

What would a robot value? An analogy for human values – part 4 of the Valuism sequence

May 7, 2023

By Spencer Greenberg and Amber Dawn Ace This post is part of a sequence about Valuism - my life philosophy. This post is the most technical of the sequence. Here are the first, second, third, and fifth parts of the sequence. Image created using the A.I. DALL•E 2 This is the fourth of five posts in my sequence of essays about my life philosophy, Valuism - here are the first, second, third, and fifth parts (though the last link won’t work until that essay is released). I...

Tensions between moral anti-realism and effective altruism

August 14, 2022

I believe I've identified a philosophical confusion associated with people who state that they are both moral anti-realists and Effective Altruists (EAs). I'd be really interested in getting your thoughts on it. Fortunately, I think this flaw can be improved upon (I'm working on an essay about how I think that can be done), but I'd like to be sure that the flaw is really there first (hence why I'm asking you for your feedback now)! People that this essay is not&...

Is every action secretly selfish?

November 9, 2021

I often hear people claim that everything we do is "selfish" or ultimately aimed at our own pleasure (and avoidance of pain). The way the argument usually goes is that we wouldn't do something unless we "wanted" to do it - and that even for altruistic actions, we do them because they feel good. This view is sometimes called "psychological egoism:" the claim that every human action is motivated by self-interest. I think this claim is either seriously mistaken (if interpreted one way) or true but...

Is altruism rational?

December 27, 2020

When people learn just a little about game theory, decision theory, economics, or even evolutionary theory, they sometimes come away thinking that altruism is somehow “irrational” or that rational agents are selfish. Here are a number of reasons why altruism is often rational: I. People can value altruism for its own sake: 1. Intrinsic values: as a psychological fact, most humans intrinsically value at least some things as ends (not merely as means to other ends) that are not about...

Our Human Games: games are everywhere, and they matter more than most people think

November 23, 2020

Games reflect an important part of human psychology. One broad way to think about "games" is that they are any situation that has: (a) a set of rules (explicit or implicit) that are made up by humans, (b) a scoring system (explicit or implicit) for determining how players are doing or for deciding who wins, (c) participants who are trying to increase their "score," and (d) a game context (outside of which the game rules stop applying). So, by this definition, games include ch...

An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Traits

September 13, 2020

The rules of evolution are simple: (1) if a trait makes survival or breeding more likely, then that trait will tend to survive in the long term by being passed down the generations. (2) Gene mutation and gene mixing create new traits, which naturally vary in how much they promote survival. Yet, the consequences of these simple rules are profound. Various facets of the world are hard to understand without taking evolution into account. Since our brains and bodies (as well as the natural world...

Bias based on facial attractiveness

July 2, 2020

There's a deeply-rooted, incredibly superficial aspect of human nature that is rarely discussed: our obsession with small variations in bone structure/skin smoothness on a person's face. At extremes, people are desired or shunned due to tiny, otherwise almost meaningless facial details. In the attached image, there are two non-existent women (generated by a face generation AI set to generate "brown hair white adult female"). If these were real people, they would likely be treated differently...

On “superstimuli” and their dangers

July 1, 2020

Images generated by DALL•E. (This is my attempt to get the DALL•E 2 A.I. to make the cutest thing imaginable. Left: a combined puppy/kitten. Right: a combined tiger cub/wolf pup.)

A “superstimulus” triggers a response that evolution gave us, but to a stronger degree than is likely to occur in nature. They exist because we humans purposely optimize our environments to create these responses. We are surrounded by more superstimuli than most of us realize. Examples of superstimuli: • food: Cheetos / skittles / McDonalds • goal achievement: video games • visual arousal: porn • pair bonding: romance novels • affection: dogs ...

Still Living with the Emotions of our Ancestors

July 27, 2011

According to evolutionary theory, emotions evolved because they were helpful for survival. Anxiety alerts us to potential danger and makes us wary. Anger motivates us to fight and shows our allies that we need help. Jealousy motivates us to keep our mates to ourselves to help maximize the number of our offspring that survive to child-bearing age. But the environment we live in today is obviously very different from the environment of our distant ancestors for whom these emotions were optimized. ...