Let me note for a sec some not-true-objections: (a) A single cent coin is more of a disutility for me, considering value vs space it takes in my wallet. (b) Adding money to the economy doesn't automatically increase the value anyone can use. (c) Bad and stupid people having more money would be actually of negative utility, as they'd give the money to bad and stupid causes. (d) Perhaps FAI is the one scenario which truly outweighs even 3^^^3 utilons.
Now for the true reason: I'd choose the money going to SIAI, but that'd be strictly selfish/tribal thinking, because I live in the planet which SIAI has some chance of improving, and so the true calculation would be about 7 billion people getting a coin each, not 3^^^3 people getting a coin each. If my utility function was truly universal in scope, the 3^^^3 cents (barring not-true objections noted above) would be the correct choice.
Today's post, Torture vs. Dust Specks was originally published on 30 October 2007. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
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This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Motivated Stopping and Motivated Continuation, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
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