Jonathan_Graehl comments on Should humanity give birth to a galactic civilization? - Less Wrong
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Comments (85)
Really?
It's okay for us to cause more entities to exist, for a greater sum of suffering, provided that it's one of the better possible outcomes.
While intervening in a way that (with or without) consent inflicts a certain amount of additional net suffering on others (such as causing them to be created) is to be avoided all other things equal, it's justifiable if the net fun is increased by some multiple of the suffering (the requisite multiple depends on consent, on who gets the fun, i.e. if you're gaining fun by torturing another, the multiple may have to be huge).
I agree that we should consider the possibility of suffering. Suicide (by radical modification into something that is not suffering, or actual termination) seems like an easy solution.
I imagine some "artist" eventually creating a creature that is sentient, feels great pain, and eloquently insists that it does not want to be changed, or ended. Sick bastard. Or perhaps it would merely be programmed to elaborately fake great pain, to others' discomfort, while secretly reveling in it. I imagine technology would be able to tell the difference.
I have at least a century of interesting math waiting for me that I will never get to. I feel really bad every time I think about that.
Seconded.
And more new interesting math seems to get created all the time. It's like drinking from the firehose.