My life plus the life of a random stranger, for example. If I was doomed to die in a certain fashion but had the chance to save another life (even in a way nobody would ever know about), well, that’s a no-brainer for me.
EDIT: Ah, now I see the context. How about the following hypothetical:
I am on a spaceship returning to Earth when all my shipmates die. I realize that I am a carrier for a horrific disease; I will never get sick from it, but I can transmit it to others, of whom 99% will die. Let’s furthermore imagine that the people on the ground don’t know about this yet, that I have good odds of surviving if I just land somewhere and make a run for it, and that no effective quarantine exists short of self-destructing the ship before I land.
If it’s therefore reduced to “I die” versus “I survive, but cause a mass extinction event”, I think I self-destruct the capsule. Perhaps not without some angst, but it’s still an obvious choice to me.
N.B: Given the many cases in history where intelligent people in dire circumstances have accepted death (or high odds of it) on behalf of something they see as more important, I think the case that revealed preferences sometimes value things above one’s own life is pretty strong.
This has pretty much been what has prevented three Suicide Bombers from succeeding. In the first case (The flight over PA on 9/11), all lost their lives to prevent a much more horrible catastrophe. The Shoe Bomber and the Underwear Bomber were both stopped (Successfully) by the passengers on the aircraft without any loss of life, yet they all knew this was possible.
I value my life, as I am certain every one of them did, yet they valued the lives of others as well, and in a situation, where to not act was to have both certain death of oneself coupled with the certain deaths of many others, almost anyone would choose to act rather than do nothing, as I would.
In fact, I believe that this is our strongest defense against Terrorism in the USA. If the suicide bombers who try to attack us discover that we are willing to die to prevent them from dying in their attempt… It will take a lot of the impetus out of them (after all, most are doing this to martyr themselves, and failure is a horrible thing to them).
I think that there are also other things that I might value more than my life. For instance I might value not creating another life more than my own life depending upon the circumstances. But, pretty much all of those things involve the sacrifice of my life for something that is greater than myself. If one thinks that they are the greatest thing on earth… well, that is going to be a lonely existence.
What do you value more than your life?
My life plus the life of a random stranger, for example. If I was doomed to die in a certain fashion but had the chance to save another life (even in a way nobody would ever know about), well, that’s a no-brainer for me.
EDIT: Ah, now I see the context. How about the following hypothetical:
I am on a spaceship returning to Earth when all my shipmates die. I realize that I am a carrier for a horrific disease; I will never get sick from it, but I can transmit it to others, of whom 99% will die. Let’s furthermore imagine that the people on the ground don’t know about this yet, that I have good odds of surviving if I just land somewhere and make a run for it, and that no effective quarantine exists short of self-destructing the ship before I land.
If it’s therefore reduced to “I die” versus “I survive, but cause a mass extinction event”, I think I self-destruct the capsule. Perhaps not without some angst, but it’s still an obvious choice to me.
N.B: Given the many cases in history where intelligent people in dire circumstances have accepted death (or high odds of it) on behalf of something they see as more important, I think the case that revealed preferences sometimes value things above one’s own life is pretty strong.
But non-total mass extinction events are awesome! The overpopulation immediately vanishes! Uh, hang on a moment, let me rethink something.
This is why neophilia isn’t always selected for.
This has pretty much been what has prevented three Suicide Bombers from succeeding. In the first case (The flight over PA on 9/11), all lost their lives to prevent a much more horrible catastrophe. The Shoe Bomber and the Underwear Bomber were both stopped (Successfully) by the passengers on the aircraft without any loss of life, yet they all knew this was possible.
I value my life, as I am certain every one of them did, yet they valued the lives of others as well, and in a situation, where to not act was to have both certain death of oneself coupled with the certain deaths of many others, almost anyone would choose to act rather than do nothing, as I would.
In fact, I believe that this is our strongest defense against Terrorism in the USA. If the suicide bombers who try to attack us discover that we are willing to die to prevent them from dying in their attempt… It will take a lot of the impetus out of them (after all, most are doing this to martyr themselves, and failure is a horrible thing to them).
I think that there are also other things that I might value more than my life. For instance I might value not creating another life more than my own life depending upon the circumstances. But, pretty much all of those things involve the sacrifice of my life for something that is greater than myself. If one thinks that they are the greatest thing on earth… well, that is going to be a lonely existence.