nyan_sandwich comments on Pinpointing Utility - Less Wrong

57 [deleted] 01 February 2013 03:58AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 02 February 2013 04:42:18PM -2 points [-]

That said, it's interesting that people react to the thought of rape and torture, but not the universe getting paperclipped, which is many many orders of magnitude worse.

I get more angry at a turtle getting thrown against the wall than I do at genocides... I guess some things just hit you hard out of proportion to their actual value.

Ooops, you tried to feel a utility. Go directly to type theory hell; do not pass go, do not collect 200 utils.

Comment author: elspood 02 February 2013 07:07:06PM *  0 points [-]

Ooops, you tried to feel a utility. Go directly to type theory hell; do not pass go, do not collect 200 utils.

I don't think this example is evidence against trying to 'feel' a utility. You didn't account for scope insensitivity and the qualitative difference between the two things you think you're comparing.

You need to compare the feeling of the turtle thrown against the wall to the cumulative feeling when you think about EACH individual beheading, shooting, orphaned child, open grave, and every other atrocity of the genocide. Thinking about the vague concept "genocide" doesn't use the same part of your brain as thinking about the turtle incident.

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