Comments on: Nightmare Scenarios

By: vacri

vacri — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:17:34 +0000

While your dilemmas are interesting, your rationales are thin. Do you really think the only answer to 2 is about rememberance? There’s a range of reasons for why people might choose either, but to prejudge it as “it tells me about how you want to be remembered” is putting the cart before the horse.

Similarly, question 1 is not just about future generations, it’s about all current human life as well. For it to be only about future generations, you’d have to say something like ‘sterilise’ rather than ‘kill’, and even then you run into complicating issues like who’s going to take care of the currently alive as they age.

The questions are interesting, but your interpretation of what they mean is highly off-kilter.

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This Is What Jerks Are Thinking, Part 2 | Patos Papa — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:00:25 +0000

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By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:17:29 +0000

My opinion of my own life, and of humanity in general, is such that it’s very, very easy for me to pick a pair of As, consider my utility function to only be based upon my own survival and not mind too much at all if we all go up in smoke at the same time. Anyone else who thinks this: you are not alone, and I for one think your view is absolutely OK.

Data points here: married, very much in love, no kids.

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By: Polevaulter Donkeyman

Polevaulter Donkeyman — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:56:42 +0000

Q1. I would choose Scenario B because:

1. The probability of a significant number of humans surviving is greater in scenario B.
2. I like the logic of the poster above who said that the utility of the last 1000 humans surviving is greater than that if subsequent 1000s (though due to network effects the 1000 should be revised upward to a million or 10s of millions)
3. If the most likely outcome of scenario B is 3.5 B people, that takes us back to 1950-1970. That is still a pretty good era to live in.
4. I like humans, I enjoy being around other humans and I am sure other humans like other humans and like to be around other humans.

Q2. I would choose scenario B irrespective of the age of spouses, or whether they have children or not. In fact it is a very simple choice. My question to those who choose A, those who cannot imagine living without their spouses is how many of them would commit suicide if their spouse predeceases them?

By: Boria

Boria — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:20:17 +0000

Addendum:
Can the Earth benefit from the fertilizer provided by 3.5B people and all the other benefits..?

By: Boria

Boria — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 14:15:09 +0000

B…
for an alien to flip 7B coins sequentially (1 per sec), would take approximately 222 years without sleep, breaks, etc… Can that alien live that long?
Also in infinity (7B is close to that), the chances of heads and tails are 50-50.
I’ll take my chances…

Solution A makes the 50-50 probability way to risky…

By: Karl Hallowell

Karl Hallowell — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:16:39 +0000

In the first question, scenario B is preferable because humanity is likely to survive. I consider survival more important than a temporary amount of unhappiness.

As to question 2, I’d go with scenario A unless there was a need for one of us to survive (we knew where the self-destruction switch was so we could prevent question 1 from happening, but only if one of us survives). Both surviving would normally be a much better outcome than the other three possible outcomes.

By: Mike Rulle

Mike Rulle — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:09:35 +0000

I know you are trying to get at a different point, but the implied moral baseline for your question is utilitarianism. There is often a place for utilitarianism in our world but I do view it only as a subset of other moral values. In my particular case, I would tell the “alien” to go F……k itself.