Comment by 8organicbits a day ago
Can someone break this down for me?
I'm seeing "Thanos committing fraud" in a section about "useful lies". Given that the founder is currently in prison, it seems odd to consider the lie useful instead of harmful. It kinda seems like the AI found a bunch of loosely related things and mislabeled the group.
If you've read these books I'm not seeing what value this adds.
Why lie if it isn’t useful? Lying is generally bad, why do a generally bad thing if there isn’t at least a justification, a “use” if you will.
Be careful with the 'utility' model of explaining behavior. It is fairly easy to slide into 'if behavior X is manifested, this must mean X must somehow be useful'. You can use this model to explain behavior, but be aware of the circularity trap in the model. "She lied thus the lie must have had use, even if it is not obvious we will discover the utility if we dig down enough".
Another model can be post-rationalization. People just do stuff instinctively, then rationalize why they did them after the fact. "She lied without thinking about it, then constructed a reasoning why the lie was rational to begin with".
At the extremes, some people will never lie, even to their detriment. Usually they seem to attribute this to virtue. Others will always lie. They seem to feel not lying is surrendering control. Most people are somewhere in between.
I guess the lies were useful until she got caught?