I think this all revolves around one question: Is “disutility of dust speck for N people” = N*”disutility of dust speck for one person”?
This, of course, depends on the properties of one’s utility function.
How about this… Consider one person getting, say, ten dust specks per second for an hour vs 106060 = 36,000 people getting a single dust speck each.
This is probably a better way to probe the issue at its core. Which of those situations is preferable? I would probably consider the second. However, I suspect one person getting a billion dust specks in their eye per second for an hour would be preferable to 1000 people getting a million per second for an hour.
Suffering isn’t linear in dust specks. Well, actually, I’m not sure subjective states in general can be viewed in a linear way. At least, if there is a potentially valid “linear qualia theory”, I’d be surprised.
But as far as the dust specks vs torture thing in the original question? I think I’d go with dust specks for all.
But that’s one person vs buncha people with dustspecks.
I think this all revolves around one question: Is “disutility of dust speck for N people” = N*”disutility of dust speck for one person”?
This, of course, depends on the properties of one’s utility function.
How about this… Consider one person getting, say, ten dust specks per second for an hour vs 106060 = 36,000 people getting a single dust speck each.
This is probably a better way to probe the issue at its core. Which of those situations is preferable? I would probably consider the second. However, I suspect one person getting a billion dust specks in their eye per second for an hour would be preferable to 1000 people getting a million per second for an hour.
Suffering isn’t linear in dust specks. Well, actually, I’m not sure subjective states in general can be viewed in a linear way. At least, if there is a potentially valid “linear qualia theory”, I’d be surprised.
But as far as the dust specks vs torture thing in the original question? I think I’d go with dust specks for all.
But that’s one person vs buncha people with dustspecks.