NMJablonski comments on The Amazing Virgin Pregnancy - Less Wrong

22 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 24 December 2007 02:00PM

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Comment author: NMJablonski 11 May 2011 04:33:10PM 1 point [-]

What would it mean for a utility function to be objectively wrong? How would one determine that a utility function has the property of "wrongness"?

Please, do not answer "by reasoning about it" unless you are willing to provide that reasoning.

Comment author: Peterdjones 11 May 2011 04:41:43PM *  -1 points [-]

I did provide the reasoning in the alien example.

There is a sense in which one party is objectively wrong. The aliens do not want to be exterminated so they should not exterminate.

Comment author: NMJablonski 11 May 2011 04:52:43PM 2 points [-]

Let's break this all the way down. Can you give me your thesis?

I mean, I see there is a claim here:

The aliens do not want to be exterminated so they should not exterminate.

... of the format (X therefore Y). I can understand what the (X) part of it means: aliens with a preference not to be destroyed. Now the (Y) part is a little murky. You're saying that the truth of X implies that they "should not exterminate". What does the word should mean there?