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By Which It May Be Judged
Followup to: Mixed Reference: The Great Reductionist Project
Humans need fantasy to be human.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
Yes. As practice. You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
Yes. Justice. Mercy. Duty. That sort of thing.
"They're not the same at all!"
You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy.
- Susan and Death, in Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Suppose three people find a pie - that is, three people exactly simultaneously spot a pie which has been exogenously generated in unclaimed territory. Zaire wants the entire pie; Yancy thinks that 1/3 each is fair; and Xannon thinks that fair would be taking into equal account everyone's ideas about what is "fair".
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The Bedrock of Fairness
Followup to: The Moral Void
Three people, whom we'll call Xannon, Yancy and Zaire, are separately wandering through the forest; by chance, they happen upon a clearing, meeting each other. Introductions are performed. And then they discover, in the center of the clearing, a delicious blueberry pie.
Xannon: "A pie! What good fortune! But which of us should get it?"
Yancy: "Let us divide it fairly."
Zaire: "I agree; let the pie be distributed fairly. Who could argue against fairness?"
Xannon: "So we are agreed, then. But what is a fair division?"
Yancy: "Eh? Three equal parts, of course!"
Zaire: "Nonsense! A fair distribution is half for me, and a quarter apiece for the two of you."
Yancy: "What? How is that fair?"
Zaire: "I'm hungry, therefore I should be fed; that is fair."
Xannon: "Oh, dear. It seems we have a dispute as to what is fair. For myself, I want to divide the pie the same way as Yancy. But let us resolve this dispute over the meaning of fairness, fairly: that is, giving equal weight to each of our desires. Zaire desires the pie to be divided {1/4, 1/4, 1/2}, and Yancy and I desire the pie to be divided {1/3, 1/3, 1/3}. So the fair compromise is {11/36, 11/36, 14/36}."
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