If it turns out that pig and chimp brains don’t have the same effect, that would be less convenient, yes. I still wouldn’t regret having run the trials.
In such a case, the next step would be to run tests on volunteers (that is, suicides) or people sentenced to be executed. If it turns out that criminals and those who wanted to die are also unsuitable, I’ll allow people with those horrible diseases to sign up for treatment on the condition that, if it doesn’t work, they get their brains vitrified and used to treat the next generation of patients, as a stopgap measure until strictly synthetic treatments becomes available.
The real world is not maximally inconvenient. Training your mind to respond to binary decisions by ruling out any options not explicitly presented is a deliberate subversion of the drive to cheat, which might, in the long term, compromise your ability to win.
More generally, if I were put in some sadistic moral dilemma (say, choosing between rescuing my love-interest or my sidekick) where either option is repugnant but inaction is somehow worse than both of them put together, I’ve got no reason to believe I’d have either enough knowledge of the consequences or enough time for my moral calculus to run in full. Under those circumstances, I would flip the fairest coin I had handy and decide between the two least-repugnant options on that basis, then try not to get backed into such situations in the future.
Training your mind to respond to binary decisions by ruling out any options not explicitly presented is a deliberate subversion of the drive to cheat, which might, in the long term, compromise your ability to win.
That is actually a really good point. Getting in the habit of “accepting the problem as stated” could be a very bad thing.
However, this scenario was contrived right from the beginning. A magical cure from eating frozen brains? Unlikely. It was a question about where to draw the line on the ethical worth of living things, that was illustrated with a little story.
However, this scenario was contrived right from the beginning.
Not necessarily. I’ve heard it seriously suggested that societies sufficiently advanced to safely revive cryopreserved people might find … more interesting things to do with them. “Spare parts” is one of the possibilities.
Good point, but probably not the Least Convenient Possible World.
If it turns out that pig and chimp brains don’t have the same effect, that would be less convenient, yes. I still wouldn’t regret having run the trials.
In such a case, the next step would be to run tests on volunteers (that is, suicides) or people sentenced to be executed. If it turns out that criminals and those who wanted to die are also unsuitable, I’ll allow people with those horrible diseases to sign up for treatment on the condition that, if it doesn’t work, they get their brains vitrified and used to treat the next generation of patients, as a stopgap measure until strictly synthetic treatments becomes available.
The real world is not maximally inconvenient. Training your mind to respond to binary decisions by ruling out any options not explicitly presented is a deliberate subversion of the drive to cheat, which might, in the long term, compromise your ability to win.
More generally, if I were put in some sadistic moral dilemma (say, choosing between rescuing my love-interest or my sidekick) where either option is repugnant but inaction is somehow worse than both of them put together, I’ve got no reason to believe I’d have either enough knowledge of the consequences or enough time for my moral calculus to run in full. Under those circumstances, I would flip the fairest coin I had handy and decide between the two least-repugnant options on that basis, then try not to get backed into such situations in the future.
That is actually a really good point. Getting in the habit of “accepting the problem as stated” could be a very bad thing.
However, this scenario was contrived right from the beginning. A magical cure from eating frozen brains? Unlikely. It was a question about where to draw the line on the ethical worth of living things, that was illustrated with a little story.
Not necessarily. I’ve heard it seriously suggested that societies sufficiently advanced to safely revive cryopreserved people might find … more interesting things to do with them. “Spare parts” is one of the possibilities.