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Stuart_Armstrong comments on Non-personal preferences of never-existed people - Less Wrong Discussion

12 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 10 March 2011 07:54PM

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Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 11 March 2011 10:47:38AM 0 points [-]

Well yes, it does, in my opinion. But it's not often phrased honestly.

Comment author: Nisan 11 March 2011 03:44:09PM 0 points [-]

What might be going on is that people are tempted to use a person's preference for existing as a proxy for the value of their life, in the same way that a person's preferences for birthday presents can inform us about what kinds of birthday presents will make them happier.

I would certainly think twice about having a child if I knew the child would grow up to express a wish to never have been born. And I'm not even a preference utilitarian. But this approach seems problematic, and it's probably better to just ask ourselves what kind of people we want to bring into existence.