Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

I most likely let the baby burn. But society's reaction is the critical difference between the two. I might care more about saving the burning baby, because then I'm a hero, and if he/she has a hot single mom, then I hit the jackpot. As with the starving babies, well, let's just leave it at you're welcome.

But seriously, the difference between the two is a good example of contrived empathy. OMG babies I don't know and are of no consequence to me are dying!!! I need to try to care about this!!! The truth is there's probably no truly objective reason to care about the baby burning in front of you either. But who said our instincts are perfect? It might be good just because it irrationally makes us feel good. These instincts of ours were developed based on a slightly different equation.

Our natural human bias will find reasons to care, and that bias will be encouraged by society's response, since they share the bias. Since society responds much more favorably to "you risked your life and saved the baby from the burning building" than "you donated a dime a day to help African babies" it becomes perfectly rational to care about one more than the other. Social approval is something we humans value pretty highly. But, if I was a robot, I see no reason why I would ever do either. As we progress as a species, we'll break this bias and care less (as we also learn to build fire proof houses or super protective bubbles for our babies to live in when we leave them alone, etc.).

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

god, I disagree totally. Contrived empathy? wow.

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

Well he is speaking big words, but ya know, then some dramatic happens the weirdest thing can spark. People you'd assume to be the heroes will do nothing and the cold cynical sounding ones will suddenly wake up and do a heroic act. Now I don't believe that is a general principle - but the essence is that talk is cheap, and that actually goes both ways - most of us don't really know how we react in extremely dramatic situations.

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

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god, I disagree totally. Contrived empathy? wow.

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Please, refer to me only by my 2+2 handle. Then maybe we can discuss empathy.

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

I dont think I would with only a 50/50 chance - impossible to know but I'd speculate there'd need to be a 90% chance of us surviving would make it worth the risk to me (but if it was only risking injury it would be much lower).

The reason I dont put the same effort into saving people half a world away is that I dont feel responsible for things I cant see. Another factor is that I dont make ethical decisions based on EV considerations, plus I think humans are irrational anyway so even if I tried to I doubt I'd calculate them "correctly".

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

[ QUOTE ]
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god, I disagree totally. Contrived empathy? wow.

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Please, refer to me only by my 2+2 handle. Then maybe we can discuss empathy.

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lol, funny as that is, I don't think so. My intuition ( do you believe that that's a contrived attribute also?) tells me we couldn't be further apart in idealogies & I think it'd be a very fruitless discussion for both of us.

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

I run into the building no problemo.

I don't donate cash to charities because I don't trust most of them. I do charity work and go overseas as a volunteer when I can.

Again it's a perception thing, when someone is presented with the here and now most do the "right" thing.

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

Id run into the building because I would think that it would increase my chances for getting pussy, whereas donating to kids in africa doesnt help me a whole lot.

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

So father's a fireman. Big deal. How would I be able to assess my chances of saving the kid? Unless you're the cheerleader from Heroes, running into a burning building is pretty stupid.

Re: Going into a burning building to save a child
 

i think i would at least try to save the kid because children have so much potential whereas i don't see myself contributing anything worthwhile to the world