= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
byrnema comments on Off Topic Thread: May 2009 - 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 (71)
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)?
My interpretation of this scenario flip-flops.
Since I will forget the experience (b), I sometimes interpret this question as being equivalent to whether I prefer having something minor happen to me (a) or something more serious happen to someone else (b). Then deciding how bad (a) would need to be before I choose (b) becomes a squirm-worthy ethical question.
Yet on alternating thoughts, I realize the choice is not as bad as choosing whether case (a) happens to me or case (b) happens to someone else because I still need to factor in that the other person will forget the torture after it happens, so it doesn't happen to them either. I might as well say it's happening to me. But this feels like rationalization to avoid having my fingernail taken off, which I really don't want either.
In the end, I'm just confused about it.