Eliezer, are you suggesting that declining to make up one’s mind in the face of a question that (1) we have excellent reason to mistrust our judgement about and (2) we have no actual need to have an answer to is somehow disreputable?
Yes, I am.
Regarding (1), we pretty much always have excellent reason to mistrust our judgments, and then we have to choose anyway; inaction is also a choice. The null plan is a plan. As Russell and Norvig put it, refusing to act is like refusing to allow time to pass.
Regarding (2), whenever a tester finds a user input that crashes your program, it is always bad—it reveals a flaw in the code—even if it’s not a user input that would plausibly occur; you’re still supposed to fix it. “Would you kill Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny?” is an important question if and only if you have trouble deciding. I’d definitely kill the Easter Bunny, by the way, so I don’t think it’s an important question.
Followup dilemmas:
For those who would pick SPECKS, would you pay a single penny to avoid the dust specks?
For those who would pick TORTURE, what about Vassar’s universes of agonium? Say a googolplex-persons’ worth of agonium for a googolplex years.
Unless the 3^^^3 people are forming a hive mind, I pick the specks.
I’m terribly inexperienced in translating ethical preferences into money, but in that scenario I wouldn’t pay the penny. A penny can be better used in buying more utility than removing specks from 3^^^3 eyeballs.
Eliezer, are you suggesting that declining to make up one’s mind in the face of a question that (1) we have excellent reason to mistrust our judgement about and (2) we have no actual need to have an answer to is somehow disreputable?
Yes, I am.
Regarding (1), we pretty much always have excellent reason to mistrust our judgments, and then we have to choose anyway; inaction is also a choice. The null plan is a plan. As Russell and Norvig put it, refusing to act is like refusing to allow time to pass.
Regarding (2), whenever a tester finds a user input that crashes your program, it is always bad—it reveals a flaw in the code—even if it’s not a user input that would plausibly occur; you’re still supposed to fix it. “Would you kill Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny?” is an important question if and only if you have trouble deciding. I’d definitely kill the Easter Bunny, by the way, so I don’t think it’s an important question.
Followup dilemmas:
For those who would pick SPECKS, would you pay a single penny to avoid the dust specks?
For those who would pick TORTURE, what about Vassar’s universes of agonium? Say a googolplex-persons’ worth of agonium for a googolplex years.
Unless the 3^^^3 people are forming a hive mind, I pick the specks.
I’m terribly inexperienced in translating ethical preferences into money, but in that scenario I wouldn’t pay the penny. A penny can be better used in buying more utility than removing specks from 3^^^3 eyeballs.