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DataPacRat comments on Is a paperclipper better than nothing? - Less Wrong Discussion
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I hope to use them to help work out the answers in extreme, edge-case conditions, to test various ethical systems and choose which one(s) provide the best advice for my long-term good.
Given that, so far, various LWers have said that a paperclipper could be better, worse, or around the same value as a sapience-free universe, I at least seem to have identified a boundary that's somewhat fuzzy, even among some of the people who'd have the best idea of an answer.
Hard cases make bad law.
If you're going to decide whether to use Newtonian physics or general relativity for some everyday situation, you don't decide based on which theory makes the correct predictions near a black hole, you decide based on which is easier to use while still giving usable results.
A true enough analogy; but when you're trying to figure out whether Newtonian or Aristotlean physics is better for some everyday situation, it's nice to have general relativity to refer to, so that it's possible to figure out what GR simplifies down to in those everyday cases.