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Carinthium comments on Yet more "stupid" questions - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: NancyLebovitz 28 August 2013 03:58PM

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Comment author: Carinthium 07 October 2013 08:53:16AM 0 points [-]

So for practical purposes, the hero can use the power for bursts of, say, an hour or less, without ethical issues involved?

Comment author: Nisan 09 October 2013 05:09:24AM 0 points [-]

Well, here are some relevant questions:

  1. How would you like it if tomorrow someone were to reset you back an hour?
  2. How would you like it if right now someone were to reset you back an hour?
  3. How many people will be affected by the reset? (Specifically, how many people will live that hour differently after the reset?)
  4. How much good will the hero accomplish by resetting the universe?
  5. Even if resetting the universe this one time is worth it, are there dangers to getting into the habit of using a universe reset to solve problems?

Your answers to 1 and 2 might be different. I feel like I might answer 1 with "okay" and 2 with "pretty bad", which suggests there's something tricky about assessing how much harm is done.

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