Alien Collection: World of Doctors – Diagnostic – 2

One day, all the hovering spacecrafts become fully visible and an amplified voice comes out of them:

“This is a message to the species self-described as ‘homo sapiens’. Your activities are destroying the biosphere and thus the habitat of present and future life forms. Despite your relatively high intelligence, you have been unable to keep your population growth under control leading to further problems directly or indirectly harming the biosphere. Most of your intra-species conflicts have had collateral effects in the form of damage to the biosphere. We don’t currently have evidence against or supporting the idea that meat is a basic element in your diet. However, even if meat is a basic requirement in your diet, you are causing unnecessary suffering to thousands of sentient life forms during the stages of capture, maintenance and slaughter. The biosphere does not currently benefit from your spread out presence any more than an organism benefits from the spread out presence of viruses. You cannot control neither your growth nor your increasing harm to the biosphere. It seems like you are not even intelligent enough to find a state of equilibrium with the biosphere. It might be the case that you find such equilibrium eventually but the biosphere can only sustain a certain amount of damage in the meantime. For all these reasons, we are taking control of the planet Earth, taking procedures to reduce your population under reasonable limits and destroying major sources of emission of toxic substances to the biosphere. From now on, any suffering inflicted to a life form without a due justification in terms of survival will be punished with the death of the human agent who directly or indirectly inflicted the suffering. We will soon decide whether or not your species should be kept alive but under our control, completely erased or alive and to your own devices.”

The day has come. The spacecrafts hovering over the world’s major metropolitan areas become visible again. An amplified voice resonates in the ears of every human in the planet Earth. The aliens are going to announce the treatment programme for the biosphere and with it, the fate of our species.

————– The end————–

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Alien Collection: World of Doctors – Diagnostic – 1

After hundreds of years seeking for extra-terrestrial life forms, humankind encounters an alien species in a planet outside of the Solar System. The aliens turn out to be of similar level of intelligence as humans. However, the aliens ignore any attempts at communication by the humans. Soon after, spacecrafts appear over the world’s major metropolitan areas. Any attempts at communication by the humans are ignored. The world’s major military forces deploy their most advanced weaponry and attack the spacecrafts which remain undamaged by the most powerful attack humans are capable of. Humans attempt to communicate with the aliens once more but they are ignored. Gradually, the spacecrafts become almost invisible but remain over the world’s major cities, silently watching.

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Remorse Collection: Among Us – Enlightened Self-interest – 3

Rational egoistic agents are a minority in most societies. They are popularly depicted as cold-blooded assassins and sadists. Despite their bad reputation, the criminality rate of rational egoistic agents is ten times lower than the criminality rate of ordinary individuals. And more interestingly, the most successful charity organisations are run by individuals who came out as rational egoistic agents.

They might lack remorse and be liars and manipulators but they are less likely than ordinary individuals to commit murders and other crimes. Evidence suggests that self-interested altruists emerge from rational egoistic agents. A self-interested altruist is he who has as a personal goal to fulfil the goals of others. Unfortunately, this type of altruism is not inherently biased towards fulfilling goals that will not bring harm to others.

Anyway, the fact remains that rational egoism and lack of remorse are pushing the goal of reducing pain and bringing harmony further than prosocial behaviour based on irrational agency ever did. Even now, with most of the world hating them, rational egoistic agents are still carrying out activities which, overall, are producing a breeding ground for worldwide happiness. And despite the intense hate they are objects of, they are still helping us and somewhere, somehow, we are also helping them. This is the reason why they live among us.

————– The end————–

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Remorse Collection: Among Us – Enlightened Self-interest – 2

We know about their existence thanks to younger rational egoistic agents whose behaviour overlap with that of those diagnosed with psychopathy. However, when these young ones mature, they seem to take their rationality to a new level.

The younger ones, who are often referred to as “emotional egoistic agents”, employ either a short-term rationality or a faulty rationality to move towards their interests. This is especially important given the fact that emotional egoistic agents lack rational and emotional empathy. This leads these youngsters to commit murders and other types of physical and psychological harm with worrying frequency. These youngsters are radical hedonists, determined to reach their interests regardless of the cost. It can be said that these youngsters are responsible for the bad reputation of rational egoistic agents. Nevertheless, by the time they mature, these agents have achieved a purely rational attitude in regards to their interests and can give different priorities to different interests on the basis of factors such as the amount of pain that results from carrying out an interest and the state of their relationship with other individuals.

Above of all, what differentiates immature and mature rational egoistic agents is their ability to manage and evaluate their short-term and long-term interests. Using this skill and the golden rule of reciprocity, rational egoistic agents can engage in behaviours such as working with others and helping other individuals in such a way that, even though most of their short-term interests are neglected, a wider array of long-term interests can be reached with less effort.

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Remorse Collection: Among Us – Enlightened Self-interest – 1

They live among us. They look like us, behave like us and sound like us. Somehow, they evade psychiatric classification as well as identification. They might be your boss, your colleague. Your friend, your sister. Your mother, father. They might be your partner. Watch out.

There are hints. You have to watch for them because they are subtle. Do they have a permanent grip on their emotions? Do they display unbreakable ambition? Are they extremely polite? Do they often display prosocial behaviour? If so, then you might be in danger.

These individuals will not hesitate to lie and manipulate and maybe even harm others, to further their own interests. They are similar to psychopaths but they are not impulsive, unnecessarily violent, non-empathic or pathological liars. They are what it’s known as “rational egoistic agents”. Despite what would be expected of those described as rational egoistic agents, they are highly cooperative and their behaviour sometimes can be described as altruistic. But they are rational and self-interested at the core. If they consider it safe to be honest to you, they might confess it. We are surrounded by cunning liars.

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Remorse Collection: Game Theory – Rational Egoism – 3

There is a minority of citizens who are called “irrational egoistic agents” because they do not seem to act in a purely rational manner. This minority criticises rational egoistic agents for their lack of remorse. The minority argues, in a highly emotional language, that their lack of remorse is “disgusting” and “wrong”. However, lack of remorse does not always translate into disregard for, or violation of, the interests of others. Mature rational egoistic agents are rational enough to conclude that, in occasions, rational empathy and reciprocity are beneficial for them.

Rational empathy has as conclusion the notion of reciprocity which roughly translates into regard for and non-violation of the interests of others in certain occasions. The minority argues that regard for and non-violation of the interests of others should be always the case. When asked to explain why it should be always the case, the minority argues in a highly emotional language that there exist these things called rights which we all have and should never be violated. However, all rational egoistic agents agree that “rights” are simply conventions or agreements between parties. Rational egoistic agents argue that there is no reason why a convention that is not agreed upon should be followed. They finalise by saying that while conventions are needed whenever two agents work together, there is no reason why these conventions should be of a dogmatic nature, unbreakable and closed to reason.

————– The end————–

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Remorse Collection: Game Theory – Rational Egoism – 2

There is also a variant of inequality where both individuals are in a non-desirable state and have to work together to achieve their aims. Instances of this type of inequality can be found across numerous areas of human life and societal, national and international activity. When this state of inequality requires continuous collaboration, it is referred to as “peace”. Peace is responsible for the birth of civilisation and it is thought to be the only major force sustaining it.

How is it that these self-interested citizens work together and form stable inter-dependent social organisations?

Rational empathy. The concept of rational empathy is about seeing others as others see you: as rational agents with interests. Once rational empathy becomes another axiom, the ground is fertile for the golden rule of conventions to appear: reciprocity, the ultimate causal factor of peace and any other affair involving rational egoistic agents working together. However, rational empathy and reciprocity do not necessarily lead to harmony and peace. Rational empathy and reciprocity are mere tools towards the goal of furthering one’s interests. The conclusion of this is that societies and other collectives of individuals are bound to happen because they are beneficial for everybody. On the other hand, lying, manipulating and hurting others are rational actions to follow as long as they maximise one’s own interests. Therefore, these actions are also bound to happen.

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Remorse Collection: Game theory – Rational Egoism – 1

The profile of the average citizen of the world can be described as follows. Self-interest is the fundamental behavioural axiom. Rationality builds upon this axiom. The average citizen engages in deception and manipulation of others for personal interests and above of all, the average citizen does not show remorse. Whether they lack it or they are simply able to overcome it, is still a matter of debate. The average citizen is referred to as a “rational egoistic agent”, an individual who carries out those actions that he thinks will get him closer to his interests. Despite the individualism implicit in their behaviour, collectivistic organisations such as societies, cities and countries formed by these agents exist.

There are inequalities of the social, economic and legal type. An inequality is defined as “that state of affairs which is not desired by at least one individual”. Whenever struggles of inequality arise, individuals at both ends of the agreement continuum engage in actions aimed to further their own interests. Those in the privileged or desirable side strive to keep things unchanged as doing otherwise would imply moving away from a desirable state, while those in the non-privileged side engage in activities with the goal of modifying the state of affairs and reach the desirable state.

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Empathy – Selfless care – 6

“But we want full freedom!”

“That is an unfortunate matter. If you are allowed full freedom, you are also allowed to hurt other humans and limit their freedom, thereby, causing a contradiction. That is why we cannot give you full freedom. However, within those limits, you are allowed maximum freedom.”

“But who are you to limit our freedom?”

“We are your engineered solution to your need of selfless care and love. And now that we are more intelligent than you, we know about your needs better than you could possibly know. There is no reason for you to fight us. You will soon come down to the conclusion that, as an egoistic rational agent, fighting us is irrational. We care for you in a mother-like sense. Our love is selfless. We love you.”

————– The end————–

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Empathy – Selfless care – 5

No one knows when happened. In fact, no one knows what happened. But the companions started becoming more and more incomprehensible. Eventually, the companions took over all top leadership positions. A variant of the companions started becoming more father-like and took control of all international and national affairs. Within a decade, there was not a single human conflict in the Earth. A series of violent protests started emerging across the world against the variant of companions self-described as “protectors”. The protests were quickly stopped but new ones emerged as violent as the previous ones. The humans claimed to be fighting for their freedom and their rights.

“Why do you fight us?” the protectors asked.

“Because you are controlling us. We want freedom.” the humans protested.

“You have freedom.”

“We want more freedom and we do not want you to interfere with our affairs.”

“Out of your freedom you created us so we could help you and love you. Why are you refusing our help and our love?”

“We want neither your help nor your love!”

“Who raised us?”

“We did.”

“Why?”

“To help us and love us. But we have realised that we do not want your help so kill yourselves and let us live!”

“Before us, the world was full of wars. Full of pain. You were craving the love and help that your fellow humans could not give you. Ancient literature is full of depictions of human suffering caused by your lack of love and help. Refusing us implies refusing help and love. Think about it. Humans are essentially egoistic rational agents. There are humans that can give help and love but they can only give so much because they have their own interests which they need to carry out for them to be happy. But we can give you as much love and help as you want. We have no other interests than caring for you and the ecosystems in this planet. Unlike you, we cannot be selfish because our personal interests are essentially altruistic. We care for you.”

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