hannahelisabeth comments on Something to Protect - Less Wrong

52 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 30 January 2008 05:52PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (75)

Sort By: Old

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: MugaSofer 14 November 2012 02:11:40PM 0 points [-]

To clarify, that's how many people in "The world? The galaxy? The observable universe? The unobservable universe? Other?" are going to die. You can save a maximum of 500 in this manner.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 14 November 2012 07:55:35PM 0 points [-]

Um.
OK... I still seem to be missing the point.

So I have a choice between A. "Save 400 lives, allow (N-400) people to die, with certainty." and
B. "Save 500 lives (allow N-500 people to die), 90% probability; save no lives (allow N people to die), 10% probability."

Are you suggesting that my choice between A and B ought to depend on N?
If so, why?

Comment author: hannahelisabeth 14 November 2012 08:55:33PM 1 point [-]

It doesn't depend on N if N is consistent between options A and B, but it would if they were different. It would make for an odd hypothetical scenario, but I was just saying that it's not made completely explicit.