bipolar comments on Is it possible to prevent the torture of ems? - Less Wrong

12 Post author: NancyLebovitz 29 June 2011 07:42AM

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Comment author: bipolar 29 June 2011 07:41:50PM 2 points [-]

I think that you raise a legitimate concern. I think that as opportunity for growth increases, it will be to people's advantage to rewire themselves to be more empathetic so that they can cooperate with one another more. So I think that people's enjoyment of torture will go down on average. But this doesn't entirely preclude the concern that you raise. I think that all that one can say is that while there's a good chance that there will be torture in the future if the human race survives, there will be a lot of counterbalancing ecstatic experiences. Whether the latter can balance out the former is in some measure a matter of perspective.