Revealing Wiser Values

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People may not always think of the best values initially, so it is essential to introduce them to alternative values that may encompass more considerations. Through this process, individuals often realize that the newly suggested values are more comprehensive and wise compared to their initial ones. This method, akin to the democratic process, has proven successful in prompting people to reconsider and adapt their values to align with more thoughtful and inclusive perspectives, leading to greater convergence in values.

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What are the best ways to define "values" and "meaning"? How can democratic processes harness people's intrinsic values and sources of meaning to increase their agency, cooperation, participation, equality, etc.? To what extent do political rivals — or even the bitterest of political enemies — actually value many of the same things? Might we be able to use AIs as "neutral" third-party mediators to help reduce political polarization, especially on an interpersonal level? How can we transform our personal values and sources of meaning into positive, shared visions for society? Are markets inherently antisocial? Or are they just easily made to be so? Companies frequently invoke our deepest needs and values as a bait-and-switch to sell us their goods and services; but since there must actually be demand to have those deep needs met and those deep values realized, why do companies so rarely attempt to supply goods and services that address those things directly? Assuming there actually is a lot of overlap in intrinsic values and sources of meaning across individuals and across groups, why do we still have such a hard time developing shared visions for society?

Joe Edelman is a philosopher, sociologist, and entrepreneur. He invented the meaning-based metrics used at CouchSurfing, Facebook, and Apple, and co-founded the Center for Humane Technology and the Meaning Alignment Institute. His biggest contribution is a definition of "human values" that's precise enough to create product metrics, aligned ML models, and values-based democratic structures. Follow him on Twitter / X at @edelwax, email him at hello@meaningalignment.org, or learn more about him and the Meaning Alignment Institute (@meaningaligned on Twitter / X).

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