GuySrinivasan comments on A Much Better Life? - Less Wrong

61 Post author: Psychohistorian 03 February 2010 08:01PM

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Comment author: brazil84 04 February 2010 06:57:29PM 1 point [-]

Ok, so you are saying that one can harm Isaac Newton today by going out and obstructing the advance of science?

Comment author: GuySrinivasan 04 February 2010 07:01:57PM 6 points [-]

Yep. I'll bite that bullet until shown a good reason I should not.

Comment author: brazil84 04 February 2010 07:20:44PM 1 point [-]

I suppose that's the nub of the disagreement. I don't believe it's possible to do anything in 2010 to harm Isaac Newton.

Comment author: RobbBB 22 January 2013 05:58:25AM -1 points [-]

Is this a disagreement about metaphysics, or about how best to define the word 'harm'?

Comment author: brazil84 24 January 2013 11:03:22PM 0 points [-]

A little bit of both, I suppose. One needs to define "harm" in a way which is true to the spirit of the prisoner's dilemma. The underlying question is whether one can set up a prisoner's dilemma between a past version of the self and a future version of the self.