OK, my final response on the subject, which has had me unable to think about anything else all day. Thanks to all involved for helping me get my thoughts in order on this topic, and sorry for hijacking.
therefore burying the whole group in dust
You’ve forgotten the rules of the game. There’s no ‘burying everyone in dust.’ You either have a speck of dust in your eye and blink it away, or you don’t. And that’s for every individual in the group. Playing with the numbers doesn’t change the scenario much either.
My #1 complaint is that no-one seems bothered by things like this:
So we then double the number in set A while halving their discomfort.
Halving their discomfort? Care to go into some more depth on that? Would that be half as many neurons firing ‘pain!’? Rods inserted half as deep? Thumbs only halfway screwed?
And this:
We can keep doing this, gradually—very gradually—diminishing the degree of discomfort, and multiplying by a factor of a googol each time, until...
As far as I know, there is no reason why I should agree that you can do anything of the sort. You might be able to divide torture by N and get dust mote, and you might not. But you certainly can’t take it for granted then tell me I’m irrational.
OK, my final response on the subject, which has had me unable to think about anything else all day. Thanks to all involved for helping me get my thoughts in order on this topic, and sorry for hijacking.
therefore burying the whole group in dust
You’ve forgotten the rules of the game. There’s no ‘burying everyone in dust.’ You either have a speck of dust in your eye and blink it away, or you don’t. And that’s for every individual in the group. Playing with the numbers doesn’t change the scenario much either.
My #1 complaint is that no-one seems bothered by things like this:
So we then double the number in set A while halving their discomfort.
Halving their discomfort? Care to go into some more depth on that? Would that be half as many neurons firing ‘pain!’? Rods inserted half as deep? Thumbs only halfway screwed?
And this:
We can keep doing this, gradually—very gradually—diminishing the degree of discomfort, and multiplying by a factor of a googol each time, until...
As far as I know, there is no reason why I should agree that you can do anything of the sort. You might be able to divide torture by N and get dust mote, and you might not. But you certainly can’t take it for granted then tell me I’m irrational.