= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
shminux comments on The Mere Cable Channel Addition Paradox - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (145)
Intentionally creating people less happy than I am. Think about it from the parenting perspective. Would you want to bring unhappy children into the world (your personal happiness level being the baseline), if you could predict their happiness level with certainty?
That is, your life is the least happy life worth living? If you reflectively endorse that, we ought to have a talk on how we can make your life better.
Again, a misunderstanding. See my other reply.
It's not clear to me that this is a misunderstanding. I think that my life is pretty dang awesome, and I would be willing to have children that are significantly less happy than I am (though, ceteris paribus, more happiness is better). If you aren't, reaching out with friendly concern seems appropriate.
Remember, not "provided I already have children, I'm OK with them being significantly less happy than I am", but "Knowing for sure that my children will be significantly less happy than I am, I will still have children". May not give you pause, but probably will to most (first-world) people.
I suspect that most first-world people are significantly less happy than many happy people on LW, and that those people on LW would still be very happy to have children who were as happy as average first-worlders, though reasonably hoping to do better.
Well... hrm.
I have evidence that if my current happiness level is the baseline, I prefer the continued existence of at least one sub-baseline-happy person (myself) to their nonexistence. That is, when I go through depressive episodes in which I am significantly less happy than I am right now, I still want to keep existing.
I suspect that generalizes, though it's really hard to have data about other people's happiness.
It seems to me that if I endorse that choice (which I think I do), I ought not reject creating a new person whom I would otherwise create, simply because their existence is sub-baseline-happy.
That said, it also seems to me that there's a level of unhappiness below which I would prefer to end my existence rather than continue my existence at that level. (I go through periods of those as well, which I get through by remembering that they are transient.) I'm much more inclined to treat that level as the baseline.
This does not contradict what I said. Creation != continued existence, as emphasized in the OP. There is a significant hysteresis between the two. You don't want to have children less happy than you are, but you won't kill your own unhappy children.
Agreed that creation != continued existence.
There are situations under which I would kill my own unhappy children. Indeed, there are even such situations where, were they happier, I would not kill them. However, "less happy than I am" does not describe those situations.
Looks like we agree, then.
This probably isn't the same as "creating people with lives worse than the current average".
Why would that be the baseline? I'm lucky enough to have a high happiness set point, but that doesn't mean I think everyone else has lives that are not worth living.
Unhappy as in net negative for their life? No. Unhappy as in "less happy than average"? Depends what the average is, but quite possibly.