MugaSofer comments on Rationality Quotes January 2013 - Less Wrong
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Quite sure. I assume you value the life of a sparrow (the bird), all else being equal. Is there a number of sparrows to spare which you would consign yourself and your loved ones to the flames? Is there a hypothetical number of sparrows for which you would choose them living over all currently living humans?
If not, then you are saying that not all goals reduce to a number on a single metric, that there are tiers of values, similar in principle to Maslow's.
You're my sparrows.
Interesting analogy. If we accept that utilities are additive, then there is presumably a number of sparrows worth killing for. (Of course, there may be a limit on all possible sparrows or sparrow utilities may be largely due to species preservation or something. As an ethics-based vegetarian, however, I can simply change it to "sparrows tortured.) I would be uncomfortable trying to put a number on it, what with the various sacred value conflicts involved, but I accept that a Friendly AI (even one Friendly only to me) would know and act on it.
Maslow's Pyramid is not intended as some sort of alternative to utilitarianism, it's a description of how we should prioritize the needs of humans. An imperfect one, of course, but better than nothing.
How sure? Based on what? What would persuade you otherwise?
Why?
They almost certainly are on the margin (think taylor series approx of utility function). Get to the point where you are talking about killing a significant fraction of the sparrow population, then there's no reason to think so.
True, but this doesn't apply to MugaSofer's claim that