system
A chat on 4chan
human
What happens when the people cannot overcome their empathy?
gpt
I don't think people should 'overcome their empathy'. What do you mean by this? I assume you mean that there could be instances where an individuals excessive empathy leads them to make decisions that are irrational long-term. For example not wanting to discipline criminals, or not wanting to defend their country, or not wanting to make any sort of sacrifice for the greater good. 

These issues, I think would be solved by increased intelligence. Right now human empathy is very narrow and selective. Most people could save many lives if they donated half the money they spent on recreation this year. However, most people dont. But if a dying person was in front of them, people would be willing to do a lot to save that person. If people were far more intelligent their empathy wouldn't be selective in this way, because they would fully realize the entailments of their actions, without having it have to be presented concretely in front of them.

In situations where someone would have the to make difficult moral decisions. 'Do you push someone off the bridge to stop the train heading towards three people'. Their empathy for the three people would override their empathy for the singular person, and they would be able to do the optimal thing (obiviously there are many problems with this hypothetical, but you get the idea)
human
Intelligence may inform the action that comes about as a result of empathy, but is it the facet of mind that overcomes the emotional distress that increased empathy would entail? Emotion can overwhelm a person and serve as a distraction from reason and even make any action at all impossible. Should increased intelligence really be the ultimate focus of such engineering? I suppose I should also ask what you mean by intelligence.
gpt
My assumption is that most people are motivated by realizing their own ends, and that intelligence is the means by which they select actions that move them closer to that goal. Compassion is just making other peoples well-being a part of their ends. It is an internal drive to see other people flourish, or at the very least not suffer. 

> but is it the facet of mind that overcomes the emotional distress that increased empathy would entail

I would say that intelligence is how you overcome this. There are ways to weaponize empathy. For example propaganda 'x group of people is killing your group of people, lets go to war with x group!'. Someone who is very empathetic is likely to be affected by such propaganda, because they feel bad for the people who are supposedly being killed. However, intelligence, would prevent this from happening, since 1) They would be less likely to be fooled by such propaganda 2) They would understand how terrible the consequences of war are, and due to their empathy, they would want to avoid such an outcome, as far as is possible. Even if the propaganda was true, they might attempt a non-violent solution first (but if no such non-violent solution was possible, they would be intelligent enough to make the tough choice as well)