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In my opinion, the only distinction worth considering a difference is the degree to which our knowledge of character constraints our expectation of their future actions.
To elaborate, how would they behave if unconstrained? Would the person putting on the show of charity cease and desist the moment they had nothing to gain by it? Or does someone's internal conviction or innate "goodness" persist when they're not being forced to be "good" or not punished for being bad? Or when doing the right thing would be a costly signal (and one that isn't outweighed by the gain in prestige, as most costly signaling is)?
At the risk of reducing everything I say to commentary on AI, should you choose the model that pretends to be good because of punishment, or the one that tries to do the right thing despite risking punishment for its actions, or at least without obvious ulterior motives? That particular choice is clear to me, and I believe the analogy extends to humans.
I lowkey expected you to catch the reference there, but if you haven't read the Practical Guide to Evil, go do that. Best fantasy this century, strong contender for all time. There is a significant plotline that deals with that issue.
I've definitely heard of PTTE, and I dimly recall reading the first chapter. I'll give it another look, I've been running out of good things to read.
I would have guessed your comment was more of an allusion to Skyrim, from that speech by Paarthurnax where he questions whether it's better to have been born good, or to have overcome your evil nature through effort.
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