Carl_Shulman comments on Anthropomorphic Optimism - Less Wrong

25 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 August 2008 08:17PM

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Comment author: Carl_Shulman 04 August 2008 09:42:46PM 2 points [-]

This seems relevant to the Pascal discussion, as various interlocutors try to argue with Unknown's claim that negative (egoist) consequentialist reasoning leads conveniently to psychologically comforting Christianity. While I would say that Unknown's position reflects this bias, it seems similar wishful thinking (that maximizing consequentialism will match the current values of much of OB's atheist readership) plays a role in many of the dismissals of Pascalian arguments. Despite making a number of arguments that negative utilitarianism or negative egoism do not lead to Unknown's conclusion, I remain especially wary of claims that a consequentialist would produce intuitively acceptable outcomes rather than dismantling the universe looking for the Dark Lords of the Matrix or magic physics to generate great utility.