less than 4,000,000 slaves
Depends on how long slavery would have lasted without the war. You don't just free current slaves, you prevent future generations from ever being enslaved. I take that to be Yudkowsky's point- the earlier the better, because the more slaves you prevent.
Edit: Actually, use your own numbers:
a slave could only expect to suffer for 20 years on average while a free man typically lived to 41
This implies converting someone from slave to free should increase their life by 20+ years, approximately half the life time of a free person. Just multiplying, using 1 free person dead = 41 years lost, one slave freed = 21 years gained, we pass a cost benefit test.
This implies converting someone from slave to free should increase their life by 20+ years, approximately half the life time of a free person. Just multiplying, using 1 free person dead = 41 years lost, one slave freed = 21 years gained, we pass a cost benefit test.
Not quite. The lower life expectancy due to slavery may be the result of early malnourishment, say, which manumission would not fix.
I've seen, but have not investigated, arguments that the civil war and emancipation of slavery led to lower life expectancy among former slaves, and those sorts of claims should be addressed in this calculation.
People want to tell everything instead of telling the best 15 words. They want to learn everything instead of the best 15 words. In this thread, instead post the best 15-words from a book you've read recently (or anything else). It has to stand on its own. It's not a summary, the whole value needs to be contained in those words.
I'll start in the comments below.
(Voted by the Schelling study group as the best exercise of the meeting.)