This post is centered on a false dichotomy, to address its biggest flaw in reasoning. If we’re at time t=0, and widespread misery occurs at time t=10^10, then solutions other than “Discontinue reproducing at t=0” exist. Practical concerns aside—as without practical concerns aside, there is no point in even talking about this—the appropriate solution would be to end reproduction at, say, t=10^9.6. This post arbitrarily says “Act now, or never” when, practically, we can’t really act now, so any later time is equally feasible and otherwise simply better.
It is not a matter of reproduction but the fact that there will be trillions of entities at the point of fatal decay. That is, let’s assume there were 100 entities. At a certain point the universe will cease to provide enough resources to sustain 100 entities. So either the ruling FAI is going to kill one entity or reduce the mental capabilities of all 100. This will continue until all of them are either killed or reduced to a shadow of their former self. This is a horrible process that will take a long time. I think you could call this torture until the end of the universe
But I think practical considerations are also rather important. For one, no entity, not even a FAI, might be able to influence parts of the universe that are no more causally connected due to the accelerated expansion of the universe. There will be many island universes.
The false dichotomy is when to do something about it. The solution to the above problem would be that those last 100 entities were never created. That does not require us to stop creating entities right now. If the entity is never created, its utility is undefined. That’s why this is a false dichotomy: you say do something now or never do something, when we could wait until very near the ultimate point of badness to remedy the problem.
Look, I’m using the same argumentation as EY and others, that the existence of those being depends on us, just in reverse. Why not their suffering too? I never said this is sound, I don’t think it is. I argued before that all those problems only arise if you try to please imaginary entities.
This post is centered on a false dichotomy, to address its biggest flaw in reasoning. If we’re at time t=0, and widespread misery occurs at time t=10^10, then solutions other than “Discontinue reproducing at t=0” exist. Practical concerns aside—as without practical concerns aside, there is no point in even talking about this—the appropriate solution would be to end reproduction at, say, t=10^9.6. This post arbitrarily says “Act now, or never” when, practically, we can’t really act now, so any later time is equally feasible and otherwise simply better.
It is not a matter of reproduction but the fact that there will be trillions of entities at the point of fatal decay. That is, let’s assume there were 100 entities. At a certain point the universe will cease to provide enough resources to sustain 100 entities. So either the ruling FAI is going to kill one entity or reduce the mental capabilities of all 100. This will continue until all of them are either killed or reduced to a shadow of their former self. This is a horrible process that will take a long time. I think you could call this torture until the end of the universe
But I think practical considerations are also rather important. For one, no entity, not even a FAI, might be able to influence parts of the universe that are no more causally connected due to the accelerated expansion of the universe. There will be many island universes.
The false dichotomy is when to do something about it. The solution to the above problem would be that those last 100 entities were never created. That does not require us to stop creating entities right now. If the entity is never created, its utility is undefined. That’s why this is a false dichotomy: you say do something now or never do something, when we could wait until very near the ultimate point of badness to remedy the problem.
Look, I’m using the same argumentation as EY and others, that the existence of those being depends on us, just in reverse. Why not their suffering too? I never said this is sound, I don’t think it is. I argued before that all those problems only arise if you try to please imaginary entities.