Lots of things have a value that we might call “infinite” according to this argument. Everything from a human life to reading a book spoiler counts as “something you cannot buy back if you regret it later.”
Even if we choose to label some things as “non-fungible”, we must often weigh them against each other nevertheless. I claim, not that the choice never hurts, but that there is no need to feel guilty about it.
Well, yes, it’s true, and obviously those things do not necessarily all have genuine infinite value. I think what this really means in practice is not that all non-fungible things have infinite value, but that because they are non-fungible, most judgements involving them are not as easy or straightforward as simple numerical comparisons. Preferences end up being expressed anyway, but just because practical needs force a square peg in a round hole doesn’t make it fit any better. I think this in practice manifests in high rates of hesitation or regret for decisions involving such things, and the general difficulty of really squaring decisions like these We can agree in one sense that several trillion dollars in charity are a much greater good than someone not having their fingers cut off, and yet we generally wouldn’t call that person “evil” for picking the latter option because we understand perfectly how to someone their own fingers might feel more valuable. If we were talking about fungible goods we’d feel very differently. Replace cutting one’s fingers with e.g. demolishing their house.
I think the whole concept of labeling goods as “fungible” or “non-fungible” is a category error. Everything trades off against something.
Either you value your fingers more than what [some specific amount of money] will buy you or you don’t. If you value your fingers more, then keeping them is the right call for you.
Lots of things have a value that we might call “infinite” according to this argument. Everything from a human life to reading a book spoiler counts as “something you cannot buy back if you regret it later.”
Even if we choose to label some things as “non-fungible”, we must often weigh them against each other nevertheless. I claim, not that the choice never hurts, but that there is no need to feel guilty about it.
Well, yes, it’s true, and obviously those things do not necessarily all have genuine infinite value. I think what this really means in practice is not that all non-fungible things have infinite value, but that because they are non-fungible, most judgements involving them are not as easy or straightforward as simple numerical comparisons. Preferences end up being expressed anyway, but just because practical needs force a square peg in a round hole doesn’t make it fit any better. I think this in practice manifests in high rates of hesitation or regret for decisions involving such things, and the general difficulty of really squaring decisions like these We can agree in one sense that several trillion dollars in charity are a much greater good than someone not having their fingers cut off, and yet we generally wouldn’t call that person “evil” for picking the latter option because we understand perfectly how to someone their own fingers might feel more valuable. If we were talking about fungible goods we’d feel very differently. Replace cutting one’s fingers with e.g. demolishing their house.
I think the whole concept of labeling goods as “fungible” or “non-fungible” is a category error. Everything trades off against something.
Either you value your fingers more than what [some specific amount of money] will buy you or you don’t. If you value your fingers more, then keeping them is the right call for you.