I think that this is the “right” ending in the sense that I think it’s the kind of thing that typical present-day non-singularitarian humans would do: Be so afraid of being altered that they would consign a large number of their own kind to death rather than face alteration (correct or incorrect, this is the same kind of thinking you see in resistance to life extension and various other H+ initiatives). I’m not confident that it’s what rational humans should do.
Small changes in the story could make me get off the fence in either direction. If the deathtoll for avoiding the Superhappy-Babyeater-Human Weirdtopia was negligible and Huygens could completely evacuate, then I would support blowing it up. Alternatively, if the Supperhappy proposal was stripped of Babyeater values, especially if a slightly better compromise between human and Supperhappy values was possible, then I would not support blowing up Huygens.
I think the Superhappy proposal was bad, but as Tyrrell McAllister said, I’m not sure it was so bad as to justify killing 15 billion people. And most of the problem with the Superhappy proposal was actually due to the Babyeater values that the Superhappies wanted to introduce, not the Superhappy values they wanted to introduce. I really can’t see Babyeaters and humans ever compromising, but I can see Superhappies and humans compromising.
I think if humans had run into the Superhappies alone, or had persuaded them not to force Babyeater values on us, then a mutually acceptable deal with the Superhappies could have been worked out (for instance, what if they left the warning component of pain, but made it less painful?). The Superhappies and humans should’ve gotten together, found a compromise or union of our values, then imposed those values on the Babyeaters (who’s values are more repugnant to us than the Superhappies, and more repugnant to the Superhappies than ours).
To again agree with Tyrrell, if the story had been written such that the Superhappies wanted to do something more drastic and dehumanizing than eliminate “bodily pain, embarrassment, and romantic troubles,” such as turn us into orgasmium, then I would see a much bigger problem with cooperating with them. But, they aren’t, and what they are taking away would alter our humanity, but not destroy it. They aren’t trying to remove complex positive experiences, only negative ones; they aren’t trying to remove humor or art. They do want to have sex with humans, but this is merely weird, not catastrophic, and might even be more acceptable to humans in this story due to their, uh, different attitudes towards sex than ours.
Minus the Babyeater values, the Superhappy deal would merely lead to a Weirdtopia that doesn’t sound all that bad as far as Weirdtopias go, unless there’s something I’m missing (and I think many humans would think it was great). The Superhappy-Human Weirdtopia doesn’t seem bad enough to justify killing 15 billion people. Maybe I just have different intuitions.
The only way—at least within the strangely convenient convergence happening in the story—to remove the Babyeater compromise from the bargain is for the humans to outwit the Superhappies such that they convince the Superhappies to be official go-betweens amongst all three species. This eliminates the necessity for humans to adopt even superficial Babyeater behavior, since the two incompatible species could simply interact exclusively through the Superhappies, who would be obligated by their moral nature to keep each side in a state of peace with the other. It should be taken as a given, after all, that the Superhappies will impose the full extent of their proposed compromises on themselves. They’d theoretically be the perfect inter-species ambassadors.
That said—given the Superhappies’ thinking speed, alien comprehension (plus their selfishness and unreasonable impatience, either of which could be a narrative accident) and higher technological advancement—I’m fairly confident that it would be impossible for this story’s humans to outwit them.
I think that this is the “right” ending in the sense that I think it’s the kind of thing that typical present-day non-singularitarian humans would do: Be so afraid of being altered that they would consign a large number of their own kind to death rather than face alteration (correct or incorrect, this is the same kind of thinking you see in resistance to life extension and various other H+ initiatives). I’m not confident that it’s what rational humans should do.
Small changes in the story could make me get off the fence in either direction. If the deathtoll for avoiding the Superhappy-Babyeater-Human Weirdtopia was negligible and Huygens could completely evacuate, then I would support blowing it up. Alternatively, if the Supperhappy proposal was stripped of Babyeater values, especially if a slightly better compromise between human and Supperhappy values was possible, then I would not support blowing up Huygens.
I think the Superhappy proposal was bad, but as Tyrrell McAllister said, I’m not sure it was so bad as to justify killing 15 billion people. And most of the problem with the Superhappy proposal was actually due to the Babyeater values that the Superhappies wanted to introduce, not the Superhappy values they wanted to introduce. I really can’t see Babyeaters and humans ever compromising, but I can see Superhappies and humans compromising.
I think if humans had run into the Superhappies alone, or had persuaded them not to force Babyeater values on us, then a mutually acceptable deal with the Superhappies could have been worked out (for instance, what if they left the warning component of pain, but made it less painful?). The Superhappies and humans should’ve gotten together, found a compromise or union of our values, then imposed those values on the Babyeaters (who’s values are more repugnant to us than the Superhappies, and more repugnant to the Superhappies than ours).
To again agree with Tyrrell, if the story had been written such that the Superhappies wanted to do something more drastic and dehumanizing than eliminate “bodily pain, embarrassment, and romantic troubles,” such as turn us into orgasmium, then I would see a much bigger problem with cooperating with them. But, they aren’t, and what they are taking away would alter our humanity, but not destroy it. They aren’t trying to remove complex positive experiences, only negative ones; they aren’t trying to remove humor or art. They do want to have sex with humans, but this is merely weird, not catastrophic, and might even be more acceptable to humans in this story due to their, uh, different attitudes towards sex than ours.
Minus the Babyeater values, the Superhappy deal would merely lead to a Weirdtopia that doesn’t sound all that bad as far as Weirdtopias go, unless there’s something I’m missing (and I think many humans would think it was great). The Superhappy-Human Weirdtopia doesn’t seem bad enough to justify killing 15 billion people. Maybe I just have different intuitions.
The only way—at least within the strangely convenient convergence happening in the story—to remove the Babyeater compromise from the bargain is for the humans to outwit the Superhappies such that they convince the Superhappies to be official go-betweens amongst all three species. This eliminates the necessity for humans to adopt even superficial Babyeater behavior, since the two incompatible species could simply interact exclusively through the Superhappies, who would be obligated by their moral nature to keep each side in a state of peace with the other. It should be taken as a given, after all, that the Superhappies will impose the full extent of their proposed compromises on themselves. They’d theoretically be the perfect inter-species ambassadors.
That said—given the Superhappies’ thinking speed, alien comprehension (plus their selfishness and unreasonable impatience, either of which could be a narrative accident) and higher technological advancement—I’m fairly confident that it would be impossible for this story’s humans to outwit them.