byrnema comments on Torture vs. Dust Specks - Less Wrong

39 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 30 October 2007 02:50AM

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Comment author: byrnema 17 December 2010 07:49:48PM 1 point [-]

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?

Comment author: jimrandomh 17 December 2010 08:18:36PM 8 points [-]

Only if they find out that the tortured person exists, which would be an event that's not in the problem statement.