ciphergoth comments on The Preference Utilitarian’s Time Inconsistency Problem - Less Wrong

25 Post author: Wei_Dai 15 January 2010 12:26AM

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Comment author: ciphergoth 18 January 2010 08:30:20AM *  4 points [-]

I'm happy to accept whatever trolley problem you care to suggest. Those are artificial but there's no conceptual problem with setting them up in today's world - you just put the actors and rails and levers in the right places and you're set. But to set up a situation where hundreds will die in this possible riot, and yet it it certain that no-one will find out and no norms will be set if you frame the guy - that's just no longer a problem set in a world anything like our world, and I'd need to know a lot more about this weird proposed world before I was prepared to say what the right thing to do in it might be.