I agree that high-trust networks are valuable (and therefore important to build or preserve). However, I think that trustworthiness is quite disconnected to how people think of their life goals (whether they’re utilitarian/altruistic or self-oriented). Instead, I think the way to build high-trust networks is by getting to know people well and paying attention to the specifics.
For instance, we can envision”selfish” people who are nice to others but utilitarians who want to sabotage others over TAI timeline disagreements or disagreements about population ethics. Similarly, we can envision “selfish” people who are transparent about their motivations, aware of their weaknesses, etc., but utilitarians who are deluded. (E.g., a utilitarian may keep a project idea secret because it doesn’t even occur to them that others might be a better fit – they may think they excel at everything and lack trust in others / not want them to have influence.)
I think it’s bad to have social norms that punish people who admit they have self-oriented goals. I think this implicitly reinforces a culture where claiming to be fully utilitarian gives you a trustworthiness benefit – but that’s the type of thing that “bad actors” would exploit.
I agree that high-trust networks are valuable (and therefore important to build or preserve). However, I think that trustworthiness is quite disconnected to how people think of their life goals (whether they’re utilitarian/altruistic or self-oriented). Instead, I think the way to build high-trust networks is by getting to know people well and paying attention to the specifics.
For instance, we can envision”selfish” people who are nice to others but utilitarians who want to sabotage others over TAI timeline disagreements or disagreements about population ethics. Similarly, we can envision “selfish” people who are transparent about their motivations, aware of their weaknesses, etc., but utilitarians who are deluded. (E.g., a utilitarian may keep a project idea secret because it doesn’t even occur to them that others might be a better fit – they may think they excel at everything and lack trust in others / not want them to have influence.)
I think it’s bad to have social norms that punish people who admit they have self-oriented goals. I think this implicitly reinforces a culture where claiming to be fully utilitarian gives you a trustworthiness benefit – but that’s the type of thing that “bad actors” would exploit.