I agree you can’t make actually binding commitments. But I think the kid-adult example is actually a good illustration of what I want to do: if a kid makes a solemn commitment to spend one in hundred million fraction of his money on action figures when he becomes a rich adult, I think that would usually work. And that’s what we are asking from our future selves.
Why? Perhaps we’d do it out of moral uncertainty, thinking maybe we owe something to our former selves, but future people probably won’t think this.
Currently our utility is roughly log in money, partly because we spend money on instrumental goals and there’s diminishing returns due to limited opportunities being used up. This won’t be true of future utilitarians spending resources on their terminal values. So “one in hundred million fraction” of resources is a much bigger deal to them than to us.
thinking maybe we owe something to our former selves, but future people probably won’t think this
This is a very strong assertion. Aren’t most people on this forum, when making present claims about what they would like to happen in the future, trying to form this contract? (This comes back to the value lock-in debate.)
I agree you can’t make actually binding commitments. But I think the kid-adult example is actually a good illustration of what I want to do: if a kid makes a solemn commitment to spend one in hundred million fraction of his money on action figures when he becomes a rich adult, I think that would usually work. And that’s what we are asking from our future selves.
Why? Perhaps we’d do it out of moral uncertainty, thinking maybe we owe something to our former selves, but future people probably won’t think this.
Currently our utility is roughly log in money, partly because we spend money on instrumental goals and there’s diminishing returns due to limited opportunities being used up. This won’t be true of future utilitarians spending resources on their terminal values. So “one in hundred million fraction” of resources is a much bigger deal to them than to us.
This is a very strong assertion. Aren’t most people on this forum, when making present claims about what they would like to happen in the future, trying to form this contract? (This comes back to the value lock-in debate.)