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ArisKatsaris comments on Something to Protect - Less Wrong
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Or, for all we know, there are only 400 lives to be saved in the first instance. Saving 400 out of 400 is different than saving 400 out of 7 billion. The context of the proposition makes a difference, and it's always best to be clear and unambiguous in the paramaters which will necessarily guide ones decision as to which choice is the best.
Huh.
Can you clarify exactly why it matters?
That is... I recognize that on a superficial level it feels like it matters, so if you're making a point about how to manipulate human psychology, then I understand that.
OTOH, if you're making an ethical point about the value of life, I don't quite understand why the value of those 400 lives is dependent on how many people there are in... well, in what? The world? The galaxy? The observable universe? The unobservable universe? Other?
Well, if there are only 400 people in the universe, option 1 means you're saving them all and nobody needs die.
But that's a rather silly interpretation. That the option 2 exists obviously means there exist at least 500 people in the universe.
I agree with all of this.