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I'll offer up a favorite Dennett quote as well, from Kinds of Minds: Toward An Understanding of Consciousness

"We intentional systems do sometimes desire evil, through misunderstanding or misinformation or sheer lunacy, but it is part and parcel of rationality to desire what is deemed good. It is this constitutive relationship between the good and the seeking of the good that is endorsed—or rather enforced—by the natural selection of our forebears: those with the misfortune to be genetically designed so that they seek what is bad for them leave no descendants in the long run."

This idea was a revelation for me and changed my approach to understanding others' motives, especially of people who I think act irrationally or do things I don't agree with or understand.

Rather than judge a person (fundamental attribution error) or their behavior, I try to understand why they think their behavior is good for them. I may not always agree with the thinking, but I have a more them-centered (vs. me-centered) understanding of their motives to work off of.

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Nice - I read Kinds of Minds a long time ago, but had forgotten that quote. Thanks for posting!

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You might get a kick out of what my AI Dennett had to say about his life, death, possibly meeting a god, and who he would choose to haunt and how if he got the chance to.

https://twitter.com/HumblyAlex/status/1781420602802221159

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Hahaha, he'd haunt Richard Dawkins!

I don't think I'll ever not be surprised by what AI is capable of these days.

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