Consider the incredibly important human value of “boredom”—our desire not to do “the same thing” over and over and over again. You can imagine a mind that contained almost the whole specification of human value, almost all the morals and metamorals, but left out just this one thing -
- and so it spent until the end of time, and until the farthest reaches of its light cone, replaying a single highly optimized experience, over and over and over again.
For what it’s worth, I don’t buy this. To my intuitions, it seems like the whole universe experiencing the literal optimal experience, over and over, with no variation, sounds...obviously good.
Insofar as it seems less than great, I think that’s only because we’re engaging in the typical mind fallacy: projecting our own internal sense of boredom onto the future universe. But it wouldn’t feel boring to do that same thing over and over again. That’s the whole point.
For what it’s worth, I don’t buy this. To my intuitions, it seems like the whole universe experiencing the literal optimal experience, over and over, with no variation, sounds...obviously good.
Insofar as it seems less than great, I think that’s only because we’re engaging in the typical mind fallacy: projecting our own internal sense of boredom onto the future universe. But it wouldn’t feel boring to do that same thing over and over again. That’s the whole point.