byrnema comments on Torture vs. Dust Specks - Less Wrong
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Perhaps it could be framed in terms of the utility of psychological comfort. Suppose that one person is tortured to avoid 3^^^3 people getting dust specks. Won't almost every one of those 3^^^3 people empathize with the tortured person enough to feel a pang of discomfort more uncomfortable than a dust speck?
Only if they find out that the tortured person exists, which would be an event that's not in the problem statement.