Sometimes, you have to do shitty things to improve the world
And sometimes you do shitty things because you think they will improve the world, but hey, even though the road to hell is very well-paved already, there’s always a place for another cobblestone...
The heuristic of this quote is that it is a firewall against a runaway utility function. If you convince yourself that something will generate gazillions of utilons, you’d be willing to pay a very high price to reach this, even though your estimates might be in error. This heuristic puts a cap on the price.
It’s good as an exhortation to build a Schelling fence, but without that sentiment, it’s pretty hollow. Reading the context, though, I agree with you: it’s a reminder that feeling really sure about something and being willing to sacrifice a lot of you and other (possibly unwilling) people to create a putative utopia probably means you’re wrong.
“Sorrow be damned, and all your plans. Fuck the faithful, fuck the committed, the dedicated, the true believers; fuck all the sure and certain people prepared to maim and kill whoever got in their way; fuck every cause that ended in murder and a child screaming. She turned and ran...”
(As an aside, I now have the perfect line for if I ever become an evil mastermind and someone quotes that at me: “But you see, murder and children screaming is only the beginning!”)
And sometimes you do shitty things because you think they will improve the world, but hey, even though the road to hell is very well-paved already, there’s always a place for another cobblestone...
The heuristic of this quote is that it is a firewall against a runaway utility function. If you convince yourself that something will generate gazillions of utilons, you’d be willing to pay a very high price to reach this, even though your estimates might be in error. This heuristic puts a cap on the price.
It’s good as an exhortation to build a Schelling fence, but without that sentiment, it’s pretty hollow. Reading the context, though, I agree with you: it’s a reminder that feeling really sure about something and being willing to sacrifice a lot of you and other (possibly unwilling) people to create a putative utopia probably means you’re wrong.
“Sorrow be damned, and all your plans. Fuck the faithful, fuck the committed, the dedicated, the true believers; fuck all the sure and certain people prepared to maim and kill whoever got in their way; fuck every cause that ended in murder and a child screaming. She turned and ran...”
(As an aside, I now have the perfect line for if I ever become an evil mastermind and someone quotes that at me: “But you see, murder and children screaming is only the beginning!”)
The problem is that there are better heuristics out there. Look up “just war theory” for starters.