Iâm wondering whether we should expect worlds which converge on moral views to converge on bad moral views.
From the space of world religionsâweâve seen a trend where we converge over time (at least from a high level of abstraction where we can refer to âChristianityâ and âIslamâ rather than âmega-church Christiansâ or whatever). Is this because the religions that succeed are exclusive and expansionary? Of all religions that have existed, I know that many of them donât much care if you also worship other gods. My empirical (ish) question is whether we should expect world in which a sizable fraction of the population follows the same religion to be one where the religion they follow is exclusive (you canât follow others) and expansionary (other people should also follow this religion). PS- I know that not all Christians or Muslims are exclusionary about other religions, this is over-simplified.
This is relevant because, if this is a mechanism, we might expect the same thing of morality or political organisationâbeliefs which demand you donât follow others, and that others follow the same beliefs as you, rather than tolerant beliefs. Perhaps this would make it more likely that futures which converge have converged on something extreme and closed, rather than exploratory and open.
This is pretty vagueâjust wondering if others a) know more than me about the religion question and can speak to that or b) have had similar thoughts, or c) think that the existence of exclusive and expansionary (and wrong) ideologies might make convergence more likely.
Maybe another way to think about this (dropping the religion stuffâdonât want to cast aspersions on any particular religions) is that we could think of black-ball and white-ball ideologies (like the Bostrom thought experiment where black-balls = technologies which can cause extinction). Perhaps certain ideologies are just much more exclusive and expansion focused than othersâblack-balls. You can pick out as many white-balls as you like, but picking out a black-ball means you have to get rid of your white-balls. Even if there are few black-balls in the bag, youâd always end up holding one.
Interesting, is this the sort of thing you have in mind? It at least seems similar to me, and I remember thinking that post got at something important.
Iâm wondering whether we should expect worlds which converge on moral views to converge on bad moral views.
From the space of world religionsâweâve seen a trend where we converge over time (at least from a high level of abstraction where we can refer to âChristianityâ and âIslamâ rather than âmega-church Christiansâ or whatever). Is this because the religions that succeed are exclusive and expansionary? Of all religions that have existed, I know that many of them donât much care if you also worship other gods. My empirical (ish) question is whether we should expect world in which a sizable fraction of the population follows the same religion to be one where the religion they follow is exclusive (you canât follow others) and expansionary (other people should also follow this religion). PS- I know that not all Christians or Muslims are exclusionary about other religions, this is over-simplified.
This is relevant because, if this is a mechanism, we might expect the same thing of morality or political organisationâbeliefs which demand you donât follow others, and that others follow the same beliefs as you, rather than tolerant beliefs. Perhaps this would make it more likely that futures which converge have converged on something extreme and closed, rather than exploratory and open.
This is pretty vagueâjust wondering if others a) know more than me about the religion question and can speak to that or b) have had similar thoughts, or c) think that the existence of exclusive and expansionary (and wrong) ideologies might make convergence more likely.
Maybe another way to think about this (dropping the religion stuffâdonât want to cast aspersions on any particular religions) is that we could think of black-ball and white-ball ideologies (like the Bostrom thought experiment where black-balls = technologies which can cause extinction). Perhaps certain ideologies are just much more exclusive and expansion focused than othersâblack-balls. You can pick out as many white-balls as you like, but picking out a black-ball means you have to get rid of your white-balls. Even if there are few black-balls in the bag, youâd always end up holding one.
Interesting, is this the sort of thing you have in mind? It at least seems similar to me, and I remember thinking that post got at something important.