NancyLebovitz comments on Human values differ as much as values can differ - Less Wrong

13 Post author: PhilGoetz 03 May 2010 07:35PM

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Comment author: PhilGoetz 04 May 2010 03:03:08PM *  0 points [-]

If I had to make a wild guess, I might guess that 75% of people in the modern world would say they would rather have been a king in 4000BC. (More, if you exclude the people who say they would rather have been a farmer in 4000BC than a king in 4000BC.) My 50% confidence interval is 25%-95%. Anybody want to do a survey?

I would also guess the number who say they would rather be a king is smaller than the number of people who would actually prefer being a king, because people overestimate how much they would miss modern conveniences, and because saying you'd like to be king is frowned on nowadays.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 04 May 2010 04:21:27PM *  5 points [-]

It's interesting to look at what traits people assume they'd carry into the past. I suspect that gender is one of them. I don't have a strong feeling for what proportion would like to be a queen in the ancient world.

In discussions I've seen about going back, a fair number say they'd be dead because of the lack of modern medicine.

Comment author: RobinZ 04 May 2010 07:00:57PM 1 point [-]

About half on the most recent such discussion I recall reading.