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Eliezer_Yudkowsky comments on Off Topic Thread: May 2009 - Less Wrong
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Ming the Merciless offers you a choice that you cannot refuse. Either (a) his torturer will rip one of your fingernails off, or (b) his torturer will inflict pain more intense than you can imagine, continuously for the next 24 hours, without otherwise harming you. But in case (b) only, his evil genius neuroscientists will cause you to afterwards completely forget the experience, and any other aftereffects from the stress will be put right as well. If you refuse to make a choice, you will get (b) without the amnesia.
What do you choose?
If you choose (a), how much worse would (a) have to be, for you to choose (b)? If you choose (b), how much less bad would (a) have to be, for you to choose (a)?
I choose (b) for instrumental reasons, but would much prefer (a) if I didn't have to worry so much about preserving my mental equilibrium.