hairyfigment comments on Circular Altruism - Less Wrong
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Maybe the strange notation has me confused, but I don't see the contradiction here. Consider sneezes. One human sneezing N times in a row, where N>2, seems at least super-exponentially worse than N humans each sneezing once (assuming that no noticeable consequences for any of this last beyond the day). In fact, if we all sneeze simultaneously that would be pretty cool.
This next part doesn't directly address the original question. But if 3^^^3 humans know that by getting a dust speck in their eye they helped save someone from torture, the vast majority would likely feel happy about this and we wind up with a mountain of increased utility from Dust Specks relative to No Pain. Whereas an average-human torture victim who learns that the torture served to prevent dust specks might try to kill you bare-handed.
They would all die of dust specks due to 3^^^3! Or something.