Like, if you’re in a crashing airplane with Eliezer Yudkowsky and Scott Alexander (or substitute your morally important figures of choice) and there are only two parachutes, then sure, there’s probably a good argument to be made for letting them have the parachutes.
This reminds me of something that happened when I joined the Bay Area rationalist community. A number of us were hanging out and decided to pile in a car to go somewhere, I don’t remember where. Unfortunately there were more people than seatbelts. The group decided that one of us, who was widely recognized as an Important High-Impact Person, would definitely get a seatbelt; I ended up without a seatbelt.
I now regret going on that car ride. Not because of the danger; it was a short drive and traffic was light. But the self-signaling was unhealthy. I should have stayed behind, to demonstrate to myself that my safety is important. I needed to tell myself “the world will lose something precious if I die, and I have a duty to protect myself, just as these people are protecting the Important High-Impact Person”.
Everyone involved in this story has grown a lot since then (me included!) and I don’t have any hard feelings. I bring it up because offhand comments or jokes about sacrificing one’s life for an Important High-Impact Person sound a bit off to me; they possibly reveal an unhealthy attitude towards self-sacrifice.
(If someone actually does find themselves in a situation where they must give their life to save another, I won’t judge their choice.)
This reminds me of something that happened when I joined the Bay Area rationalist community. A number of us were hanging out and decided to pile in a car to go somewhere, I don’t remember where. Unfortunately there were more people than seatbelts. The group decided that one of us, who was widely recognized as an Important High-Impact Person, would definitely get a seatbelt; I ended up without a seatbelt.
I now regret going on that car ride. Not because of the danger; it was a short drive and traffic was light. But the self-signaling was unhealthy. I should have stayed behind, to demonstrate to myself that my safety is important. I needed to tell myself “the world will lose something precious if I die, and I have a duty to protect myself, just as these people are protecting the Important High-Impact Person”.
Everyone involved in this story has grown a lot since then (me included!) and I don’t have any hard feelings. I bring it up because offhand comments or jokes about sacrificing one’s life for an Important High-Impact Person sound a bit off to me; they possibly reveal an unhealthy attitude towards self-sacrifice.
(If someone actually does find themselves in a situation where they must give their life to save another, I won’t judge their choice.)