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cousin_it comments on Cult impressions of Less Wrong/Singularity Institute - Less Wrong Discussion

29 Post author: John_Maxwell_IV 15 March 2012 12:41AM

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Comment author: cousin_it 15 March 2012 06:40:59PM *  7 points [-]

I don't think this calculation works out, actually. If you're purely selfish (don't care about others at all), and the question is whether to devote your whole life to developing FAI, then it's not enough to believe that the risk is high (say, 10%). You also need to believe that you can make a large impact. Most people probably wouldn't agree to surrender all their welfare just to reduce the risk to themselves from 10% to 9.99%, and realistically their sacrifice won't have much more impact than that, because it's hard to influence the whole world.