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Quote from: alancalverd on 15/11/2018 07:58:11The "golden rule" is subject to sampling error. It is fairly obvious that a "family" group (could be a biological family or a temporary unit like a ship's crew) will function better if its members can trust each other. The military understand this: selection for specialist duties includes checks for honesty and recognition that you are fighting for your mates first, your country second. So the "greatest happiness for the greatest number" (GHGN) metric is fairly easy to determine where N < 50, say. Brexit provides a fine example of the breakdown of GHGN for very large N. There is no doubt that a customs union is good for business: whether you are an importer or an exporter, N is small and fewer rules and tariffs means more profit . But if the nation as a whole (N is large) imports more than it exports, increased business flow overall means more loss, hence devaluation and reduced public budgets. At its simplest, you could model a trading nation as consisting of just two businesses of roughly equal size and turnover Nimp ≈ Nexp. Good news for any sample of size ≤ 2N is bad news for the whole population if Nimp > Nexp by even a small amount, hence the interesting conundrum "EU good for British business, bad for Britain".I see nothing wrong with the Golden Rule. A business operates on profit making rather than morality, if it does not profit, it ceases to be a business over time. It is for everyone's best interest that a business can continue to serve its customers. Otherwise, where are the customers going to get their goods and services? Customers have to be willing to give profits to businesses as incentive to keep them operating.Premise 1: As a seller I want to maximize profit. Premise 2: As a buyer, I want to minimize the seller's profit (pay the lowest price).Let's look at the Golden Rule when applied to business.If we follow this rule to its full extent, the seller would want to give as much discount to the buyer as possible (because that would be what he would have wanted if he were the buyer). Conversely, the buyer would not ask for a single discount (because that would be what he would have wanted if he were the seller)When the golden rule is applied, both of these actions cancel themselves out.In the sampling error illustration, the nation exporting to Britain receives the surplus profits. Yes Britain incurs a trade deficit, but this trade deficit is exactly offset by the trade surplus of the other country. There is no change in the system, simply an aggregate flow of money from Britain to the exporting nation. The trade deficit is comparable to the profit that we as buyers are willing to give sellers so that they would continue to operate and provide us the goods and services that we need.
The "golden rule" is subject to sampling error. It is fairly obvious that a "family" group (could be a biological family or a temporary unit like a ship's crew) will function better if its members can trust each other. The military understand this: selection for specialist duties includes checks for honesty and recognition that you are fighting for your mates first, your country second. So the "greatest happiness for the greatest number" (GHGN) metric is fairly easy to determine where N < 50, say. Brexit provides a fine example of the breakdown of GHGN for very large N. There is no doubt that a customs union is good for business: whether you are an importer or an exporter, N is small and fewer rules and tariffs means more profit . But if the nation as a whole (N is large) imports more than it exports, increased business flow overall means more loss, hence devaluation and reduced public budgets. At its simplest, you could model a trading nation as consisting of just two businesses of roughly equal size and turnover Nimp ≈ Nexp. Good news for any sample of size ≤ 2N is bad news for the whole population if Nimp > Nexp by even a small amount, hence the interesting conundrum "EU good for British business, bad for Britain".
We can put some milestones in the continuum of complexity of shortcut rules. The next step from instinct is emotion. Emotion includes anticipation of near future events. We can feel sad/happy/fear/angry before events which potentially cause pleasure/pain actually happens.
Quote from: hamdani yusuf on 27/11/2018 10:32:33We can put some milestones in the continuum of complexity of shortcut rules. The next step from instinct is emotion. Emotion includes anticipation of near future events. We can feel sad/happy/fear/angry before events which potentially cause pleasure/pain actually happens.The next steps from emotion are thoughtful actions, which require the systems to simulate their environments in their internal memory, and then choose the action based on the most preferred calculated result. More complex systems allow for more reliable results due to better precision and accuracy of the models in their memory, incorporating more factors, wider range in space and time. They can plan their actions to get best result further into the future.
the migrants now stranded at the southern USA border came from socialist countries. they saw the failures of the system, and might establish rules that overcome it's weaknesses.
I love George Carlin, he is considered as one of the best comedians of all time
morality tests such as trolley problem is used to sort priorities of moral rules based on which action leads to the more preferable conditions. Moral rules themselves are strategies to protect conscient beings from destructive actions by other conscient beings. It's part of multilayer protection strategy.
Quote from: hamdani yusuf on 07/12/2018 08:17:58Quote from: hamdani yusuf on 27/11/2018 10:32:33We can put some milestones in the continuum of complexity of shortcut rules. The next step from instinct is emotion. Emotion includes anticipation of near future events. We can feel sad/happy/fear/angry before events which potentially cause pleasure/pain actually happens.The next steps from emotion are thoughtful actions, which require the systems to simulate their environments in their internal memory, and then choose the action based on the most preferred calculated result. More complex systems allow for more reliable results due to better precision and accuracy of the models in their memory, incorporating more factors, wider range in space and time. They can plan their actions to get best result further into the future. The progress of increasing complexity can be seen in development of human from fetus into an adult. Fetuses only have reflex. Babies have developed instincts. Toddlers may have shown emotions. Little kids can have planned actions for the results a few days ahead. Older kids can make longer term plans, perhaps into the next few years. Adult humans can have plan for the next decades. Wise men may have plans for the next centuries or millennia.
"Religions and cults may arise from that."I have long held that religions and cults are synonymous. religious beliefs start out as "cults", and if they survive condemnation and persecution, eventually are accepted as "religions".belief that a man could rise from the dead, getting "clear" by paying large sums, or receiving knowledge from scrolls readable only with magic spectacles, were at the beginning of their creation, considered cults.now, many accept them as true religions.
I'd like to share this entertaining take on moral rules. I hope you enjoy this. //www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE8ooMBIyC8George Carlin - 10 Commandments
Apart from the exception above, there must be some positive value of honesty to make it widely accepted as a moral guidance.
life is preferred to death, health is preferred to sickness, and happiness is preferred to suffering