timtyler comments on Value Deathism - Less Wrong
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Agree, but the multiple different current forms of human values are the source of much conflict.
Agree again. And in honor of Robin's profession, I will point out that the multiple current forms of human values are the driving force causing trade, and almost all other economic activity.
Strongly disagree. The future is not ours to lose. A growing population of enfranchised agents is going to be sharing that future with us. We need to discount our own interest in that future for all kinds of reasons in order to achieve some kind of economic sanity. We need to discount because:
Too much discounting runs into problems with screwing the future up, to enjoy short-term benefits. With 5-year political horizons, that problem seems far more immediate and pressing than the problems posed by discounting too little. From the point of view of those fighting the evils that too much temporal discounting represents, arguments about mathematical infinity seem ridiculous and useless. Since such arguments are so feeble, why even bother mentioning them?