Zack_M_Davis comments on Open Thread, June 1-15, 2012 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 01 June 2012 04:01AM

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Comment author: shminux 03 June 2012 10:49:17PM *  0 points [-]

To rationalize dust specks over torture, one can construct a utility function where utility of dust specks in n people is of the Zeno type, -(1-1/2^n), and the utility of torture is -2. Presumably, something else goes wrong when you do that. What is it?

Comment author: Zack_M_Davis 04 June 2012 12:28:37AM *  7 points [-]

As commenter Unknown pointed out in 2008, there must then exist two events A and B, with B only worse than A by an arbitrarily small amount, such that no number of As could be worse than some finite number of Bs.

Comment author: shminux 04 June 2012 07:10:32AM 1 point [-]

Thanks, that's a valid point, pretty formal, too. I wonder if it invalidates the whole argument.