eddie comments on The "Intuitions" Behind "Utilitarianism" - Less Wrong

29 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 28 January 2008 04:29PM

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Comment author: eddie 29 January 2008 11:36:00PM 0 points [-]

Eliezer: So when I say that two punches to two faces are twice as bad as one punch, I mean that if I would be willing to trade off the distance from the status quo to one punch in the face against a billionth (probability) of the distance between the status quo and one person being tortured for one week, then I would be willing to trade off the distance from the status quo to two people being punched in the face against a two-billionths probability of one person being tortured for one week.

So alternatives that have twice the probability of some good thing X happening have twice the utility? A sure gain of a dollar has twice the utility of a gaining a dollar on a coin flip? Insurance companies and casinos certainly think so, but their customers certainly don't.

I think you are conflating utility and expected utility. I'm not convinced they are the same thing, although I think you believe they are.