Dr. Evil would not care to indulge in a philosophical debate about whether he may or may not be a duplicate who was about to be tortured unless he was strapped to a rack and WAS in fact already being tortured. Dr. Evil(s) don’t really consider things like Possible Outcomes of this sort of problem… You’ll have to take my word for it from having worked with and for a Dr. Evil when I was younger. Those sorts of people are arrogant and defiant (and contrary as hell) in the face of all sorts of opposition, and none of them I have known took to well to philosophical puzzling of the sort described.
My comment above is meant to say “How do you know that you’re not about to be tortured right now?” and “Dr. Evil would have the same knowledge, and discard any claims that he might be about to be tortured for the same reasons that you don’t feel under threat of torture right now, and for which you would discard a threat of torture at the present moment (immanent threat).” (if you do feel under threat of torture, then I don’t know what to say)
Alright, I fortunately haven’t worked with Dr. Evils, so I’ll defer to your experience.
As for how Dr. Evil might know he was under a threat of torture, it was stated in the paper that he received a message from the Philosophy Defence Force telling him he was. It was also established that the Philosophy Defence Force never lies or gives misleading information. ;)
(I, myself, haven’t received any threats from organizations known to never lie or be misleading.)
I think the same applies, regardless of the PDF’s notification. Just the name alone would make me suspicious of trusting anything that came from them.
Now, if the Empirical Defense Task Force told me that I was about to be tortured (and they had the same described reputation as the PDF)… I’d listen to them.
I see the issue, while I care about my own behavior, and others… I don’t care to base it upon silly examples. And, I think this is a silly and contrived situation. Maybe someone should do a sitcom based upon it.
Pardon… I was not clear.
Dr. Evil would not care to indulge in a philosophical debate about whether he may or may not be a duplicate who was about to be tortured unless he was strapped to a rack and WAS in fact already being tortured. Dr. Evil(s) don’t really consider things like Possible Outcomes of this sort of problem… You’ll have to take my word for it from having worked with and for a Dr. Evil when I was younger. Those sorts of people are arrogant and defiant (and contrary as hell) in the face of all sorts of opposition, and none of them I have known took to well to philosophical puzzling of the sort described.
My comment above is meant to say “How do you know that you’re not about to be tortured right now?” and “Dr. Evil would have the same knowledge, and discard any claims that he might be about to be tortured for the same reasons that you don’t feel under threat of torture right now, and for which you would discard a threat of torture at the present moment (immanent threat).” (if you do feel under threat of torture, then I don’t know what to say)
Alright, I fortunately haven’t worked with Dr. Evils, so I’ll defer to your experience.
As for how Dr. Evil might know he was under a threat of torture, it was stated in the paper that he received a message from the Philosophy Defence Force telling him he was. It was also established that the Philosophy Defence Force never lies or gives misleading information. ;)
(I, myself, haven’t received any threats from organizations known to never lie or be misleading.)
I think the same applies, regardless of the PDF’s notification. Just the name alone would make me suspicious of trusting anything that came from them.
Now, if the Empirical Defense Task Force told me that I was about to be tortured (and they had the same described reputation as the PDF)… I’d listen to them.
I agree that Dr. Evil would act in this way. The paper was arguing about what he should do, not about what he would actually do.
I see the issue, while I care about my own behavior, and others… I don’t care to base it upon silly examples. And, I think this is a silly and contrived situation. Maybe someone should do a sitcom based upon it.