Mitchell_Porter comments on One Life Against the World - Less Wrong

32 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 18 May 2007 10:06PM

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Comment author: Mitchell_Porter 19 May 2007 02:38:58AM 4 points [-]

Robin: And whoever creates a life that would not have otherwise existed, it is as if they saved someone who had an entire lifetime yet to live.

I have to question that comparison. When you save a life that already exists, you are delivering them from a particular existential danger, even if not from the generic existential danger they face constantly by virtue of being alive. But when you create a life, you are delivering a new "hostage to fortune" and creating an existentially endangered being where none previously existed.