Risking 1 utilon for 10 utilons (at fifty/fifty odds) is a gamble everyone here would take—but when the risk is 1000 utilons for 10 000 utilons, even though it’s the same gamble, it’s harder to see it as such
I think the standard reply here is that utilons (or utils, or whatever your favored terminology for this) is a standardized measure of whatever-it-is-you-care-about. You might not want to risk 1000 (say) dollars for even odds of 10 000 dollars—that all depends on your personal marginal utility of money. But if you don’t think you’d want to risk 1000 utilons for 10 000 utilons at even odds, that just means you’re defining utilons incorrectly. By definition, if I understand.
IAWYC, but I don’t think Aurini was necessarily making that mistake.
I read their comment as stating that, even when their “shut up and multiply” answer would or should be the same, people are wired to behave differently towards gambles when the stakes are higher. Not that they should, but that they do.
For example, my conscious dollars-to-utility function is nearly linear in small increments from my present position; if I had a 1-in-5 chance of turning $10 into $100, I’d go for it. However, my conscious (lives saved)-to-utility function is practically linear in small populations; but if I had a chance to gamble 10 lives against 100 at 1-in-5 odds, it would be psychologically more difficult to make the clearly correct choice. Or any choice at all; decisive paralysis is a probable actual outcome.
There are sensible evolutionary reasons for this to be the case, but it raises the question of what to do about it for people in positions of power.
On a deeper level, I’m suggesting that we over-estimate the utilon-level of own lives. Personally, I think your average North American thinks their own life far more valuable than it actually is.
Honestly, I really can’t pint to factual evidence when it comes to ‘the value of human life.’ - but back in University, I honestly thought that Latin was a more accurate representation of human-life value than Christian English was—and at the present day, knowledge of transhumanism seems to justify it.
I honestly thought that Latin was a more accurate representation of human-life value than Christian English was—and at the present day, knowledge of transhumanism seems to justify it.
I can’t parse this. What does Latin or English have to do with the value of life? The ways the concept is expressed in the two languages? What does transhumanism have to say about Latin?
I think the standard reply here is that utilons (or utils, or whatever your favored terminology for this) is a standardized measure of whatever-it-is-you-care-about. You might not want to risk 1000 (say) dollars for even odds of 10 000 dollars—that all depends on your personal marginal utility of money. But if you don’t think you’d want to risk 1000 utilons for 10 000 utilons at even odds, that just means you’re defining utilons incorrectly. By definition, if I understand.
IAWYC, but I don’t think Aurini was necessarily making that mistake.
I read their comment as stating that, even when their “shut up and multiply” answer would or should be the same, people are wired to behave differently towards gambles when the stakes are higher. Not that they should, but that they do.
For example, my conscious dollars-to-utility function is nearly linear in small increments from my present position; if I had a 1-in-5 chance of turning $10 into $100, I’d go for it. However, my conscious (lives saved)-to-utility function is practically linear in small populations; but if I had a chance to gamble 10 lives against 100 at 1-in-5 odds, it would be psychologically more difficult to make the clearly correct choice. Or any choice at all; decisive paralysis is a probable actual outcome.
There are sensible evolutionary reasons for this to be the case, but it raises the question of what to do about it for people in positions of power.
On a deeper level, I’m suggesting that we over-estimate the utilon-level of own lives. Personally, I think your average North American thinks their own life far more valuable than it actually is.
Honestly, I really can’t pint to factual evidence when it comes to ‘the value of human life.’ - but back in University, I honestly thought that Latin was a more accurate representation of human-life value than Christian English was—and at the present day, knowledge of transhumanism seems to justify it.
We are expendable: truth and justice matter.
I can’t parse this. What does Latin or English have to do with the value of life? The ways the concept is expressed in the two languages? What does transhumanism have to say about Latin?