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Kindly comments on Pinpointing Utility - Less Wrong
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So suppose we use the dust specks vs. torture situation to construct a cycle of options A1, A2, ..., An, in which you prefer A1 to A2, A2 to A3, and so on, and prefer An to A1. (For example, say that A1 is 50 years of torture for one person, and the other options spread things out over more people up until An is dust specks for lots of people.)
If you were asked to choose between any of the options A1 through An, which one do you pick? And why?
That might depend strongly on the filling-in details and on how the choice is framed. I can't visualize all the options and compare them together, so I always end up comparing the nearby cases and then running through the loop. I suspect that forced to make the choice I would say An (the dust specks) but more because of it being a Schelling point than any substantial, defensible reason. And I would say it while still endorsing A(n-1) to be better than An.