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steven0461 comments on Replaying History - Less Wrong
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Related exercise: try to figure out what would be the moral thing to do for someone transported into various historical situations. Assuming away third alternatives (like trying to educate people), do you aid the Normans or the English in 1066 AD? Octavian or Mark Antony in 31 BC? More importantly: on what do you base your answer? (No, you are not completely indifferent.)
Doing this highlights the problem that doing the moral thing in year X would very often have disastrous consequences for people in year X+Y.
Does the decision have to be based just on information available at the time, or is it taking into account what you know now about future repurcusions?
You can use information gleaned from the present that applies to the past's future in general, but you can't assume the past's future will be the present. (Assume you brought a butterfly, and/or quantum randomness is redrawn.)