I understand that choosing specks theoretically leads to an overall decrease in happiness in the universe. One (irrational, given my previous conclusion) thought, however, always seems to dominate my interior monologue about specks vrs. torture - if someone were to ask me whether or not I would take a dust speck in the eye to save someone from 50 years of torture, I would do it (as I would expect most people to). I realize that I would have to take 3^^^3 dust specks for the problem to match the original question (and I wouldn't be willing to get 3^^^3 du... (read more)
I understand that choosing specks theoretically leads to an overall decrease in happiness in the universe. One (irrational, given my previous conclusion) thought, however, always seems to dominate my interior monologue about specks vrs. torture - if someone were to ask me whether or not I would take a dust speck in the eye to save someone from 50 years of torture, I would do it (as I would expect most people to). I realize that I would have to take 3^^^3 dust specks for the problem to match the original question (and I wouldn't be willing to get 3^^^3 du... (read more)