Eugine_Nier comments on Our Phyg Is Not Exclusive Enough - Less Wrong

25 [deleted] 14 April 2012 09:08PM

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Comment author: Eugine_Nier 15 April 2012 08:06:24PM 2 points [-]

So if someone you cared about is leaving your future light cone, you wouldn't care if he gets horribly tortured as soon as he's outside of it?

Comment author: Vaniver 15 April 2012 08:14:24PM 1 point [-]

I'm not clear on the relevance of caring to beliefs. I would prefer that those I care about not be tortured, but once they're out of my future light cone whatever happens to them is a sunk cost- I don't see what I (or they) get from my preferring or believing things about them.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 15 April 2012 09:17:13PM 1 point [-]

Yes, but you can affect what happens to them before they leave.

Comment author: Vaniver 15 April 2012 09:37:23PM *  1 point [-]

Before they leave, their torture would be in my future light cone, right?

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 15 April 2012 10:56:26PM 1 point [-]

Oops, I just realized that in my hypothetical scenario by someone being tortured outside your light cone, I meant someone being tortured somewhere your two future light cones don't intersect.

Comment author: Vaniver 16 April 2012 01:12:09AM 1 point [-]

Indeed; being outside of my future light cone just means whatever I do has no impact on them. But now not only can I not impact them, but they're also dead to me (as they, or any information they emit, won't exist in my future). I still don't see what impact caring about them has.

Comment author: Eugine_Nier 16 April 2012 02:09:10AM 1 point [-]

Ok, my scenario involves your actions having an effect on them before your two light cones become disjoint.

Comment author: Vaniver 16 April 2012 02:56:50AM *  1 point [-]

Right, but for my actions to have an effect on them, they have to be in my future light cone at the time of action. It sounds like you're interested in events in my future light cone but will not be in any of the past light cones centered at my future intervals- like, for example, things that I can set in motion now which will not come to fruition until after I'm dead, or the person I care about pondering whether or not to jump into a black hole. Those things are worth caring about so long as they're in my future light cone, and it's meaningful to have beliefs about them to the degree that they could be in my past light cone in the future.