Reorienting my understanding of this discussion to be, as you say, normative: yes, when offered a choice between destroying a sentimental but not otherwise valuable item and killing a billion humans, I endorse destroying the item, no matter how many other humans there are in the world.
I even endorse it if everything is uncertain, with the usual expected-value calculation.
That said, as is often true of hypothetical questions, I don’t quite agree that the example you describe quite maps to that choice, but I think it was meant to. If I really think about the example, it’s more complicated than that. If I missed the intended point of the example, let me know and I’ll try again.
Reorienting my understanding of this discussion to be, as you say, normative: yes, when offered a choice between destroying a sentimental but not otherwise valuable item and killing a billion humans, I endorse destroying the item, no matter how many other humans there are in the world.
I even endorse it if everything is uncertain, with the usual expected-value calculation.
Glad to hear it. Sorry about that misunderstanding.
That said, as is often true of hypothetical questions, I don’t quite agree that the example you describe quite maps to that choice, but I think it was meant to. If I really think about the example, it’s more complicated than that.
Curses. I knew I should have gone with the rogue nanotech.
If I missed the intended point of the example, let me know and I’ll try again.
Reorienting my understanding of this discussion to be, as you say, normative: yes, when offered a choice between destroying a sentimental but not otherwise valuable item and killing a billion humans, I endorse destroying the item, no matter how many other humans there are in the world.
I even endorse it if everything is uncertain, with the usual expected-value calculation.
That said, as is often true of hypothetical questions, I don’t quite agree that the example you describe quite maps to that choice, but I think it was meant to. If I really think about the example, it’s more complicated than that. If I missed the intended point of the example, let me know and I’ll try again.
Glad to hear it. Sorry about that misunderstanding.
Curses. I knew I should have gone with the rogue nanotech.
Nope, spot-on :)