Okay, you're right that the Sadistic Conclusion does consider it better to avoid adding any people at all, and says that it's better to add people with negative welfare only if we are in a situation where we have to add someone.
So you're saying that by spending resources on not creating the new lives, people are essentially choosing the "create a life with negative welfare" option, but instead of creating a new life with negative welfare, an equivalent amount is subtracted from their own welfare. Am I understanding you correctly?
So you're saying that by spending resources on not creating the new lives, people are essentially choosing the "create a life with negative welfare" option, but instead of creating a new life with negative welfare, an equivalent amount is subtracted from their own welfare. Am I understanding you correctly?
Yes, that's what I was trying to say.
Joshua Greene manages to squeeze his ideas about 'point and shoot morality vs. manual mode morality' into just 10 minutes. For those unfamiliar, his work is a neuroscientific approach to recommending that we shut up and multiply.
Greene's 10-minute video lecture.