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army1987 comments on Is a paperclipper better than nothing? - Less Wrong Discussion
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I was more going with my gut feelings than with reasoning; anyway, thinking about the possibility of intelligent life arising again sounds like fighting the hypothetical to me (akin to thinking about the possibility of being incarcerated in the trolley dilemma), and also I'm not sure that there's any guarantee that such a new intelligent life would be any more humane than the paperclipper.
Well, he did say “solar system (and presumably the universe)”. So considering the universe is stipulated in the hypothetical, but the “presumably” suggests the hypothetical does not dictate the universe. And given that the universe is much bigger than the solar system, it makes sense to me to think about it. (And hey, it’s hard to be less human than a paperclipper and still be intelligent. I thought that’s why we use paperclippers in these things.)
If the trolley problem mentioned “everybody on Earth” somewhere, it would be reasonable to actually consider other people than those on the track. Lesson: If you’re making a thought experiment about spherical cows in a vacuum, don’t mention pastures.