I do not anticipate any experience after I die. It is indistinguishable to me whether anything afterward exists or not. I’m not going to make arguments against any laws of thermodynamics, but if there is nothing to distinguish two states, no fact about them enters into my calculations. They are like fictional characters. And I assign moral weight based on ass-kicking. I suppose there might be an issue if denizens of the future are able to travel back in time.
There’s no way you’d agree to receive $1000 a year before your death on condition that your family members will be tortured a minute after it. This is an example of what Vladimir means.
We are confused because a human individual does not possess her own morality, but rather the morality of a “virtual agent” comprising that human’s genetic lineage.
The future is lost when I cease to exist.
“Now I will destroy the whole world… - What a Bokononist says before committing suicide.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokononism
Yep. That’s the philosophy that the semi-wise pattern-recognizing pro-death are trying to oppose.
Again, see Belief in the Implied Invisible. What you can’t observe is still there, and still has moral weight.
I do not anticipate any experience after I die. It is indistinguishable to me whether anything afterward exists or not. I’m not going to make arguments against any laws of thermodynamics, but if there is nothing to distinguish two states, no fact about them enters into my calculations. They are like fictional characters. And I assign moral weight based on ass-kicking. I suppose there might be an issue if denizens of the future are able to travel back in time.
There’s no way you’d agree to receive $1000 a year before your death on condition that your family members will be tortured a minute after it. This is an example of what Vladimir means.
We are confused because a human individual does not possess her own morality, but rather the morality of a “virtual agent” comprising that human’s genetic lineage.
To rephrase this in a less negative-sounding way:
It makes no sense to ask what my utility function says should happen after I die.