| --- |
| title: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12) (HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013130)" |
| source: "House Oversight: Estate Documents (Nov 12)" |
| sourceUrl: "https://www.justice.gov/epstein" |
| date: "2026-01-01" |
| category: "House Oversight" |
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| externalUrl: "https://ep-nov-12.greg.technology" |
| --- |
| |
| 214 |
| 12 The Engineering and Development of Ethics |
| thinking, this is a cognitive precedent to being able to reconsider an entire belief system, one |
| seen as enlightened. However, achieving this cognitive stage does not mean one automatically |
| changes their belief systems, but rather that the mental machinery is in place to consider |
| the possibilities. Because many people do not reach this level of cognitive development in the |
| area of moral and ethical thinking, it is associated with negative traits ("moral relativism" |
| and "flip-flopping"). However, this cognitive flexibility generally leads to more sophisticated and |
| applicable moral codes, which in turn leads to morality which is actually more stable because |
| it is built upon extensive and deep consideration rather than simple adherence to reflexive or |
| rationalized ideologies. |
| 12.4.2 Stages of Development of Empathic Ethics |
| Complementing Kohlberg's logic-and-justice-focused approach, Carol Gilligan's [Gi182] "ethics |
| of care" model is a moral development theory which posits that empathetic understanding |
| plays the central role in moral progression from an initial self-centered modality to a socially |
| responsible one. The ethics of care model is concerned with the ways in which an individual |
| cares (responds to dilemmas using empathetic responses) about self and others. As shown in |
| Table 12.3, the ethics of care is broken into the same three primary stage as Kohlberg, but with |
| a focus on empathetic, emotional caring rather than rationalized, logical principles of justice. |
| Stage |
| Pre-Conventional |
| Conventional |
| Post-Conventional |
| Principle of Care |
| Individual Survival |
| Self Sacrifice for the Greater Good |
| Principle of Nonviolence (do not hurt others, or oneself) |
| Table 12.3: Gilligan's Stages of the Ethics of Care |
| For an "ethics of care" approach to be applied in an AGI, the AGI must be capable of internal |
| simulation of other minds it encounters, in a similar manner to how humans regularly simulate |
| one another internally. Without any mechanism for internal simulation, it is unlikely that an |
| AGI can develop any sort of empathy toward other minds, as opposed to merely logically |
| or probabilistically modeling other agents' behavior or other minds' internal contents. In a |
| CogPrime context, this ties in closely with how CogPrime handles episodic knowledge - partly |
| via use of an internal simulation world, which is able to play "mental movies" of prior and |
| hypothesized scenarios within the AGI system's mind. |
| However, in humans empathy involves more than just simulation, it also involves sensorimotor |
| responses, and of course emotional responses - a topic we will discuss in more depth in Appendix |
| ?? where we review the functionality of mirror neurons and mirror systems in the human brains. |
| When we see or hear someone suffering, this sensory input causes motor responses in us similar |
| to if we were suffering ourselves, which initiates emotional empathy and corresponding cognitive |
| processes. |
| HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_013130 |
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