There are no truly one-shot problems. Most humans develop precommitment habits and elevate some of them into their moral code in some abstracted way (a wetware version of self-modification). Some examples are: do not kill/steal/covet/deceive. The Parfit’s Hitchhiker is only an issue because the relevant moral injunction is pretty weak. if you modify the problem statement in terms of the stronger moral injunctions, the problem would disappear.
There are no truly one-shot problems. Most humans develop precommitment habits and elevate some of them into their moral code in some abstracted way (a wetware version of self-modification). Some examples are: do not kill/steal/covet/deceive. The Parfit’s Hitchhiker is only an issue because the relevant moral injunction is pretty weak. if you modify the problem statement in terms of the stronger moral injunctions, the problem would disappear.
Surely there are situations where you meet someone and you have 0.001% chance of ever meeting them again, et.
Yes, plenty! My point was that meeting that someone belongs to a reference class of situations you had encountered before and will encounter again.