Thank you for the feedback, and sorry for causing you distress! I genuinely did not take into consideration that this choice could cause distress, and it could have occurred to me, and I apologize.
On how I came to think that it might be a good idea (as opposed to missing that it might be a bad idea): While there’s math in this post, the point is really the philosophy rather than the math (whose role is just to help thinking more clearly about the philosophy, e.g. to see that PBDT fails in the same way as NBDT on this example). The original counterfactual mugging was phrased in terms of dollars, and one thing I wondered about in the early discussions was whether thinking in terms of these low stakes made people think differently than they would if something really important was at stake. I’m reconstructing, it’s been a while, but I believe that’s what made me rephrase it in terms of the whole world being at stake. Later, I chose the torture as something that, on a scale I’d reflectively endorse (as opposed, I acknowledge, actual psychology), is much less important than the fate of the world, but still important. But I entirely agree that for the purposes of this post, “paying $1” (any small negative effect) would have made the point just as well.
Thank you for the feedback, and sorry for causing you distress! I genuinely did not take into consideration that this choice could cause distress, and it could have occurred to me, and I apologize.
On how I came to think that it might be a good idea (as opposed to missing that it might be a bad idea): While there’s math in this post, the point is really the philosophy rather than the math (whose role is just to help thinking more clearly about the philosophy, e.g. to see that PBDT fails in the same way as NBDT on this example). The original counterfactual mugging was phrased in terms of dollars, and one thing I wondered about in the early discussions was whether thinking in terms of these low stakes made people think differently than they would if something really important was at stake. I’m reconstructing, it’s been a while, but I believe that’s what made me rephrase it in terms of the whole world being at stake. Later, I chose the torture as something that, on a scale I’d reflectively endorse (as opposed, I acknowledge, actual psychology), is much less important than the fate of the world, but still important. But I entirely agree that for the purposes of this post, “paying $1” (any small negative effect) would have made the point just as well.