Luke_A_Somers comments on The Triumph of Humanity Chart - Less Wrong

23 Post author: Dias 26 October 2015 01:41AM

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Comment author: Lukas_Gloor 26 October 2015 12:47:36PM *  -1 points [-]

The developments you highlight are impressive indeed. But you're making it sound as though everyone should agree with your normative judgments. You imply that doubling extreme poverty would be a good thing if it comes with a doubling of the rest of the population. This view is not uncontroversial and many EAs would disagree with it. Please respect that other people will disagree with your value judgments.

Comment author: Luke_A_Somers 26 October 2015 11:12:40PM 2 points [-]

You imply that doubling extreme poverty would be a good thing if it comes with a doubling of the rest of the population.

Kind of? The point of the second plot is to show that we didn't get where we are in fractional terms by murdering the poor, which would be bad, I think, regardless of whether one holds that doubling the overall population is good or bad. And if we got where we are in fractional terms by adding rich people without actually cutting into the number of poor people, that would be bad too, though not as bad as murdering them.

Of course, the plots can't show that we didn't grow the rich population while also killing the poor, but, well, that's not what happened either.

Comment author: Lukas_Gloor 26 October 2015 11:46:26PM -2 points [-]

I at one point phrased it "comes with a doubling of the (larger) rest of the population" to make it more clear, but deleted it for a reason I have no introspective access to.

And if we got where we are in fractional terms by adding rich people without actually cutting into the number of poor people, that would be bad too, though not as bad as murdering them.

It would, obviously, if there are better alternatives. In consequentialism, everything where you have better viable alternatives is bad to some extent. What I meant is: If the only way to double the rest of the population is by also doubling the part that's in extreme poverty, then the OP's values implies that it would be a good thing. I'm not saying this view is crazy, I'm just saying that creating the impression that it's some sort of LW-consensus is mistaken. And in a latter point I added that it makes me, and probably also other people with different values, feel unwelcome. It's bad for an open dialogue on values.