You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

MugaSofer comments on DRAFT:Ethical Zombies - A Post On Reality-Fluid - Less Wrong Discussion

0 Post author: MugaSofer 09 January 2013 01:38PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (116)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: MugaSofer 11 January 2013 01:15:23PM -2 points [-]

If you create a precise duplicate of the universe in a simulation, I don't regard that we have gained anything; I consider that two instances of indistinguishable utility aren't cumulative. If you create a precise duplicate of me in a simulation and then torture that duplicate, utility decreases.

This may seem to be favoring "average" utility, but I think the distinction is in the fact that torturing an entity represents, not lower utility, but disutility; because I regard a duplicate universe as adding no utility, the negative utility shows up as a net loss.

I'm basically assuming this reality-fluid stuff is legit for the purposes of this post. I included the most common argument in it's favor (the probability argument) but I'm not setting out to defend it, I'm just exploring the consequences.