ArisKatsaris comments on [SEQ RERUN] Torture vs. Dust Specks - Less Wrong
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That's the same question effectively, so the former.
Yes, I would volunteer for this, but that's just because I can rationally anticipate that if I denied so volunteering I'd be irrationally having guilt-trips over this, which would be significantly higher disutility in the long term than a dust-speck. In short I'd be comparing a dust speck to the disutility of irrational guilt, not the disutility of torture/3^^^3
Question about your hypothetical: What happens if less than the necessary number of people volunteer for the dust speck? Do they get the dust speck to no purpose, or is their speck count reduced as though they hadn't volunteered?
So if they said they'd wipe your memory, you wouldn't volunteer?
I consider it a disutility to lose memories too, so switch that clause to "if you assume that you're magically not going to have any feelings you consider irrational regarding this decision of yours, or otherwise face some social penalty more severe than than specific dust speck", and I'll say "no, I wouldn't volunteer".