Lukas_Gloor comments on A (small) critique of total utilitarianism - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 26 June 2012 12:36PM

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Comment author: Lukas_Gloor 28 June 2012 02:41:47PM 0 points [-]

I'm operating from the point of view where my species' preferences, let alone my preferences, fill less than 1 part in 100,000 of the resource-rich volume of known space, let alone theoretically available space.

Do you think the preferences of your species matter more than preferences of some other species, e.g. intelligent aliens? I think that couldn't be justified. I'm currently working on a LW article about that.

Comment author: Mass_Driver 29 June 2012 12:05:14AM 0 points [-]

I haven't thought much about it! I look forward to reading your article.

My point above was simply that even if my whole species acted like me, there would still be plenty of room left in the Universe for a diversity of goods. Barring a truly epic FOOM, the things humans do in the near future aren't going to directly starve other civilizations out of a chance to get the things they want. That makes me feel better about going after the things I want.

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