It can't be invalid: just replace the initial rule by this: of all 3^^^3, a random selection of 1000 will be made who are to be tortured. Given this rule, each individual has about 1 in 3^^^3/1000 probability of getting selected for torture, which is presumably even better deal than a certain speck. This is compared to choosing one person to torture with certainty. The proximity effect may say that those 1000 people are from far away and so of little importance, which I mentioned in the comment above. I don't think the choice of saving one known person over a thousand ridiculously-far-away people is necessarily incorrect though.