daenerys comments on Welcome to Less Wrong! (2012) - Less Wrong

25 Post author: orthonormal 26 December 2011 10:57PM

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Comment author: [deleted] 01 January 2012 08:46:26PM *  1 point [-]

But my moral theory gives significant weight to blicket-potential (because blicket is that awesome), while your system does not appear to do so. Why not?

If you say you don't want to kill an infant because of its potential for blicket, then you would also have to apply that logic to abortion and birth control, and come to the conclusion that these are just as wrong as killing infants, since they both destroy blicket-potential.

Fetus- does not have blicket, has potential for blicket - killing it is legal abortion

Infant- does not have blicket (you agreed with this), has potential for blicket - killing it is illegal murder

Does not compute. One or the other outcomes needs to be changes, and I'm sure not going to support the illegalization of birth control.

Note: I apologize if this is getting too close to politics, but it is a significant part of the killing babies debate, and not mentioning it just to avoid mentioning a political issue would not give accurate reasons.

Comment author: TimS 01 January 2012 08:55:46PM 3 points [-]

At a certain level, all morality is about balancing the demands of conflicting blicket-supported desires. So the balance comes out different at different stages. Yes, the difference between stages is quite arbitrary (and worse: obviously historically contingent).

In short, I wish I had a better answer for you than I am comfortable with arbitrary distinctions (why is the speed limit 55 mph rather than 56?). From an outsider perspective, I'm sure it looks like I've been mind-killed by some version of "The enemy of my enemy (politically active religious conservatives) is my friend."

Comment author: Strange7 05 June 2012 04:18:42AM 0 points [-]

(why is the speed limit 55 mph rather than 56?)

Somebody did some math about reaction times, kinetic energy from impacts, and fuel economy. That turned out to be a good place to draw the line. For practical purposes, people can drive 60 in a 55 zone under routine circumstances and not get in trouble.

Comment author: Alejandro1 05 June 2012 04:24:35AM *  1 point [-]

Actually...

The 55 mph speed limit was a vain attempt by the Federal government to reduce gasoline consumption; initially passed in the 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act the law was relaxed in 1987 and finally repealed in 1995 allowing states to choose their speed limits. Highways and cars are safer today than in the 1970s and on many highways speed limits were increased to 65 mph. Higher speed limits are often safer because what is worse than speed is variable speed, some people driving fast and some driving slow. When the speed limit is set too low you get lots of people who safely break the law and a few law-abiders who make the roads more dangerous.

Unfortunately vestiges of the 55mph limit remain, in part because police like the 55mph limit which lets them write tickets at will whenever they need an increase in revenues.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 05 June 2012 02:07:57PM 0 points [-]

So, Alejandro's response is correct, but all of this seems rather tangential to the question you quote. The reason the speed limit is 55 rather than 56 or 54 is because we have a cultural preference for multiples of 5... which is also why all the other speed limits I see posted are multiples of 5. Seeing a speed limit sign that read "33" or something would cause me to do a potentially life-threatening double-take.

Comment author: othercriteria 05 June 2012 02:21:20PM 0 points [-]

They're unusual but they do happen. The "19 MPH" one happens to be from the campus of my alma mater.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 05 June 2012 02:24:35PM 0 points [-]

Huh. Some of these I can understand, but I'm really curious about the 19mph one... is there a story behind that? (If I had to guess I'd say it relates to some more global 20mph limit.)

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