This post made me think how much I value the actions of others, rather than just their omissions. And I have to conclude that the actions I value most in others are the ones that *thwart* actions of yet other people. When police and military take action to establish security against entities who would enslave or torture me, I value it. But on net, the activities of other humans are mostly bad for me. If I could snap my fingers and all other humans dropped dead (became inactive), I would instrumentally be better off than I am now. Sure, I’d lose their company and economic productivity, but it would remove all intelligent adversaries from my universe, including those who would torture me.
>The Good Place system...
I think it’s worth noting that you have chosen an example of a system where people will not just be tortured, but tortured *for all eternity without the right to actually ever die* and not even the moral philosopher character manages to formulate a coherent in-depth criticism of that philosophy. I know it’s a comedy show, but it’s still premised on the acceptance that there would be a system of eternal torture and that system would be moralized as justice, and of course nonconsensual without an exit option.
>The symmetric system is in favor of action.
This post made me think how much I value the actions of others, rather than just their omissions. And I have to conclude that the actions I value most in others are the ones that *thwart* actions of yet other people. When police and military take action to establish security against entities who would enslave or torture me, I value it. But on net, the activities of other humans are mostly bad for me. If I could snap my fingers and all other humans dropped dead (became inactive), I would instrumentally be better off than I am now. Sure, I’d lose their company and economic productivity, but it would remove all intelligent adversaries from my universe, including those who would torture me.
>The Good Place system...
I think it’s worth noting that you have chosen an example of a system where people will not just be tortured, but tortured *for all eternity without the right to actually ever die* and not even the moral philosopher character manages to formulate a coherent in-depth criticism of that philosophy. I know it’s a comedy show, but it’s still premised on the acceptance that there would be a system of eternal torture and that system would be moralized as justice, and of course nonconsensual without an exit option.