Comment author: zzrafz 18 August 2014 03:08:49AM -2 points [-]

This is more of a question than a comment, but here it goes: what do y'all think about Steve Pavlina's blog ( http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/ ) , when it comes to the issues raised by the OP?

Comment author: zzrafz 14 August 2014 04:47:02PM 3 points [-]

I'm not sure speed alone, by itself, is a solution. If you speed down a game by, say, 70% there would probably be no difference than if you sped it down by 90%, since there's a limit to what the character can do in a given second. Mario, for instance, once you jump, there's not much to do until he actually lands.

Suppose the same would happen if we had the capability to speed down time in our actual lives. Sure you could dodge bullets and win F1 races from time to time, but the actual day-to-day tasks, that take the majority of our time wouldn't be improved much. If you need to eat lunch, eating it in an optimal way won't give you much advantage in comparison to regular people that don't take the fork to their mouths following a perfect parabola.

Comment author: zzrafz 13 August 2014 05:48:08PM 0 points [-]

It is said by some that intelligence is the capability to adapt, to change, while rationality is doing the most logical thing. For instance: a computer that makes investments by itself - a rational computer, using logic to maximize profits. A computer that invents something - a smart, intelligent computer, that has developed some level of intelligence and is using that to chang its environment instead of merely working on it.

Comment author: Nectanebo 11 August 2014 05:26:11PM *  9 points [-]

Apart from the fact that they wouldn't say anything (because generally animals can't speak our languages ;)), nature can be pretty bloody brutal. There are plenty of situations in which our species' existence has made the lives of other animals much better than they would otherwise be. I'm thinking of veterinary clinics that often perform work on wild animals, pets that don't have to be worried about predation, that kind of thing. Also I think there are probably a lot of species that have done alright for themselves since humans showed up, animals like crows and the equivalents in their niche around the world seem to do quite well in urban environments.

As someone who cares about animal suffering, is sympathetic to vegetarianism and veganism, and even somewhat sympathetic to more radical ideas like eradicating the world's predators, I think that humanity represents a very real possibility to decrease suffering including animal suffering in the world, especially as we grow in our ability to shape the world in the way we choose. Certainly, I think that humanity's existence provides real hope in this direction, remembering that the alternative is for animals to continue to suffer on nature's whims perhaps indefinitely, rather than ours perhaps temporarily.

Comment author: zzrafz 11 August 2014 06:31:37PM 0 points [-]

Never thought of it this way. Guess in the long term it makes sense. So far, though...

Comment author: zzrafz 11 August 2014 04:35:07PM 0 points [-]

My guess is the second greatest good would be the best option. Taking into account that these are mortal beings and you don't know how long will these people live/be healthy, the best choice would be one that is not the least rewarding (first greatest good) neither the slowest to come.

Think of it as spending your life savings: you don't want to spend it all on your youth and be poor the rest of your life and you don't want to spend it all in your nineties either, when you'll be too old to enjoy it. The answer is somewhere in the middle.

Comment author: RichardKennaway 11 August 2014 02:27:40PM 13 points [-]

is there something else I should do?

Find out how your brain went wrong, with a view to not going so wrong again.

Comment author: zzrafz 11 August 2014 04:20:42PM 0 points [-]

Playing devil's advocate here, the original poster is not that wrong. Ask any other living species on Earth and they will say their life would be better without humans around.

Comment author: Username 11 August 2014 01:33:45PM 2 points [-]

My brain spontaneously generated an argument for why killing all humans might be the best way to satisfy my values. As far as I know it's original; at any rate, I don't recall seeing it before. I don't think it actually works, and I'm not going to post it on the public internet. I'm happy to just never speak of it again, but is there something else I should do?

Comment author: zzrafz 11 August 2014 04:18:21PM -2 points [-]

Since you won't be able to kill all humans and will eventually get caught and imprisoned, the best move is to abandon your plan, accordingo to utilitarian logic.