Self Bias - Who to save, the ant or the human?

[possibilities]

People think that comparing an ants life with a humans as a pretty extreme comparison but its really not when you break it down like this.

Like you wouldn't choose Adolf Hitler over the ant if you knew for a fact that everything that was said about him was true and that the right decision was indeed to end his life.

A trickier question to workout though if you really want a challenge is the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, because not only were many human lives destroyed, many animals and insects died as well along with a lot of pollution being caused among other ripple effects.

THESE are the kinds of decisions you hope you never have to make but you got to contemplate them if you want to reap the benefits of contemplation here.

Edited August 21, 2019 by possibilities

[possibilities]

I know this because I've experienced it personally but I think people probably have a lot of problems on this subject for ego reasons, for example objectively people should end my life over someone else's if they had to choose and it was the case that this other person was going to provide more value to the environment. I would encourage it.

There's a lot of value to go through these thoughts experiments actually, it makes me realise the importance of doing as best as we can to map and contemplate the constituents of reality so we're always monitoring and trying to improve the effectiveness of our decisions.

It reveals the importance of not just knowledge and its accumulation, but contemplation of that knowledge so that we can arrive at higher degrees there.

To me, again just to me, we all need to do our best at trying to become like generals, but not just for humanity, for existence/reality itself.

The battle field is the entirety of reality, and becoming a general is the effort of trying to improve our understanding of reality as much as possible because a good general here makes decisions that are in line with reality, not our subjective preferences that we haven't even properly thought about nor experienced enough contrast in reality in order for those preferences to be a true reflection of our potential.

Edited August 21, 2019 by possibilities

[Scholar]

39 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I know this because I've experienced it personally but I think people probably have a lot of problems on this subject for ego reasons, for example objectively people should end my life over someone else's if they had to choose and it was the case that this other person was going to provide more value to the environment. I would encourage it.

There's a lot of value to go through these thoughts experiments actually, it makes me realise the importance of doing as best as we can to map and contemplate the constituents of reality so we're always monitoring and trying to improve the effectiveness of our decisions.

It reveals the importance of not just knowledge and its accumulation, but contemplation of that knowledge so that we can arrive at higher degrees there.

To me, again just to me, we all need to do our best at trying to become like generals, but not just for humanity, for existence/reality itself.

The battle field is the entirety of reality, and becoming a general is the effort of trying to improve our understanding of reality as much as possible because a good general here makes decisions that are in line with reality, not our subjective preferences that we haven't even properly thought about nor experienced enough contrast in reality in order for those preferences to be a true reflection of our potential.

Positive impact for who though? This particular ecosystem, this particular way the earth currently is? Why is an earth with life more important than an earth without it? Is Mars less important that the Earth, and if so isn't is kind of self-bias to say that?

What you present is basically utilitarianism in a context of contributing to the current eco system. But the current eco system only exists because the dinosaurs were wiped out. By upholding this current regime of ecology you will surpress any potential different regime that would spawn as a result of absolute catastrophy and death. This is infact true for every decision you make. Any decision you make will create one way reality unfolds over another. Why do you think one way is "better" than the other, without self-bias?

Edited August 21, 2019 by Scholar

[possibilities]

I encourage you to argue against my statements @Scholar, that's the spirit! Arguing, even just internally with yourself or externally whichever you prefer, will help your own path .

Well, you gotta base it on something otherwise you're just relying on instinct.

I believe in instinct, I use it often, but I know that it has many limitations.

Thinking in the moment is what increases the potential for undesired chaos, thinking in advance and learning from those lessons moment to moment is what allows us to transcend limits that would have been imposed on us due to the cognitive present bias threshold hypothesis. The cognitive present bias threshold hypothesis is a termed I’ve coined to describe the limitations we have in our capacity to make decisions in the moment versus decisions based on training for that moment. There’s literally no comparison. The training that police, fire fighters, SAS and so on go through is something we should analogously apply to all life situations. This requires us to invent overtime these maps as opposed to just relying on what we’re taught by any one organisation we’re a part of. Training trains otherwise good instincts to be great, lack of training increases the likelihood that otherwise great instincts can sometimes have really bad consequences due to fatal mistakes. These mistakes can be understood through the lens of the cognitive present bias threshold hypothesis.

Good stuff!

[roopepa]

@possibilities 

You can't separate "good" from "bad" consequences without self-bias.

Did you watch the self-bias video? I'm not sure you understood what this topic is about. It's way deeper.

Edited August 21, 2019 by roopepa