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RowanE comments on [Open Thread] Stupid Questions (2014-02-17) - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: solipsist 17 February 2014 05:34AM

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Comment author: RowanE 18 February 2014 09:57:08AM 1 point [-]

Only if you also do not expect there to be enough happy living to outweigh the amount of suffering.

Comment author: dunno 18 February 2014 12:00:24PM 0 points [-]

This just doesn't seem right. Perhaps no amount of happy living outweighs suffering beyond a certain amount.

Comment author: RowanE 18 February 2014 12:50:17PM 3 points [-]

Well, that sounds obviously wrong - it would mean you could start with a universe you liked, scale up the population without changing average quality of life at all, and end up with a universe in which you want to destroy all life.

Comment author: dunno 18 February 2014 01:27:43PM 0 points [-]

What makes this obviously wrong? I mean, aside from preferences, why would it not make sense to start with a universe in a current state you like and end up with a state you dislike?

Comment author: RowanE 19 February 2014 12:02:41AM 0 points [-]

The universe you dislike is in the same state as the one you like, there's just more of it.

Comment author: Creutzer 19 February 2014 12:38:13AM *  1 point [-]

I think you're talking past each other. Rowan is assuming the amount of happiness and suffering to be distributed across several people, where adding another person with the same suffering/pleasure ratio shouldn't change anything, and dunno is, I believe, talking about a single person's perspective where, once you've reached a certain amount of suffering, it might be impossible to outweigh it.