Sure, if I factor in the knock-on effects of 50 years of torture (or otherwise ignore the original thought experiment and substitute my own) I might come to different results.
Leaving that aside, though, I agree that the nature of my utility function in suffering is absolutely relevant here, and it’s entirely possible for that function to be such that BIGNUMBER x SMALLSUFFERING is worth less than SMALLNUMBER x BIGSUFFERING even if BIGNUMBER >>>>>> SMALLNUMBER.
The key word here is possible though. I don’t really know that it is.
Sure, if I factor in the knock-on effects of 50 years of torture (or otherwise ignore the original thought experiment and substitute my own) I might come to different results.
Leaving that aside, though, I agree that the nature of my utility function in suffering is absolutely relevant here, and it’s entirely possible for that function to be such that BIGNUMBER x SMALLSUFFERING is worth less than SMALLNUMBER x BIGSUFFERING even if BIGNUMBER >>>>>> SMALLNUMBER.
The key word here is possible though. I don’t really know that it is.