Stuart_Armstrong comments on Resetting Gandhi-Einstein - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (32)
So do I. I think it's a hideous immoral idea. Only because the lives of everyone else are in the balance would I consider it.
How about if you get saved at the end of the hour/week, not deleted?
That would be better. And then, after the dust settles, all the copies could be resurrected?
If it was determined that you were the best candidate to be Gandhi-Einstein, would you volunteer?
I would. I'd want to do some shorter test runs first though, to get used to the idea, and I'd want to be sure I was in a good mood for the main reset point.
It would probably be good to find a candidate who was enlightened in the buddhist sense, not only because they'd be generally calmer and more stable, but specifically because enlightenment involves confronting the incoherent naïve concept of self and understanding the nature of impermanence. From the enlightened perspective, the peculiar topology of the resetting subjective experience would not be a source of anxiety.
Only if there were no other alternatives. And yes, that is a selfish sentiment.
I'm not Stuart, but I would.
If it was determined that I was the best candidate, I would lose quite a bit of trust in the world. But if I thought it within my abilities to optimize the world an hour at a time, yes, I would volunteer.
Around the age of ten I made a precommitment that if I were ever offered an exchange of personal torment for saving the world, I should take it.