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Ghatanathoah comments on In Praise of Boredom - Less Wrong
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Gee, thanks for that.
People often seem to think that entropy maximisation priinciples imply that organisms should engage in wanton destruction, blowing things up. However, that is far from the case. Causing explosions is usually a very bad way of maximising entropy in the long term - since it tends to destroy the world's best entropy maximisers, living systems. Living systems go on to cause far more devastation than exploding a sun ever could. So, wanton destruction of a sun, is bad - not good - from this perspective.
That's why I said "far-off" star. I was trying to imply that the star was so far away its destruction would not harm any living things. Please don't fight the hypothetical.
In any case, the relevant part of the question isn't "Would you blow up a star?" That was just an attempt to give the hypothetical some concrete details so it sounded less abstract. The relevant question is "Would you torture fifty children to death in order to greatly increase the level of entropy in the universe." Assume that the increase would be greater than what the kids would be able to accomplish themselves if you allowed them to live.