The comment to which you’re replying can be seen as providing a counterexample to the principle that goodness or utility is monotonic increasing in consciousness or conscious beings. Also a refutation of, as you mention, any deontological rule that might forbid destroying it.
The counterexample I’m proposing is that one should destroy a paperclip maximiser, even if it’s conscious, even though doing so will reduce the sum total of consciousness; goodness is outright increased by destroying it. (This holds even if we don’t suppose that the paperclipper is more conscious than a human; we need only for it to be at all conscious.)
(I suspect that some people who worry about utility monsters might just claim they really would lay down and die. Such a response feels like it would be circular, but I couldn’t immediately rigorously pin down why it would.)
I am asking HOW it is a countrexample. As far as I can see, you would have to make an assumption about how .consciousness relates to morality specifically, as in my second and third questions.
For instance,suppose conscious beings are morally relevant just means don’t kill conscious beings without good reason..
The comment to which you’re replying can be seen as providing a counterexample to the principle that goodness or utility is monotonic increasing in consciousness or conscious beings. Also a refutation of, as you mention, any deontological rule that might forbid destroying it.
The counterexample I’m proposing is that one should destroy a paperclip maximiser, even if it’s conscious, even though doing so will reduce the sum total of consciousness; goodness is outright increased by destroying it. (This holds even if we don’t suppose that the paperclipper is more conscious than a human; we need only for it to be at all conscious.)
(I suspect that some people who worry about utility monsters might just claim they really would lay down and die. Such a response feels like it would be circular, but I couldn’t immediately rigorously pin down why it would.)
I am asking HOW it is a countrexample. As far as I can see, you would have to make an assumption about how .consciousness relates to morality specifically, as in my second and third questions.
For instance,suppose conscious beings are morally relevant just means don’t kill conscious beings without good reason..