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paper-machine comments on Life Extension versus Replacement - Less Wrong Discussion
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As a first rough approximation, one could compare fMRIs of people's pleasure or pain centers.
But no, I largely agree with you. If one chooses the numbers so that the average utility of both scenarios is the same, then I don't see any reason to prefer one to the other. If instead one is trying to make some practical claim, it seems clear that in the near future humanity overwhelmingly prefers making new life to researching life extension.
Hedons are not utilons. If they were, wireheading (or entering the experience machine) would be utility-maximizing.
Oh. Right.
In order for this to be true, it would have to be sustainable enough that the pleasure gain outweighs the potential pleasure loss from a possibly longer life without wireheading/experience machine.
For utilitarians, externalities of one person's wireheading affecting other lives would have to be considered as well.