The post says “when you finally got hungry [...] what would you do after you were done eating?”, which I take to understand that I still have desire and reason to eat. But it also asks me to imagine a proof that all utilities are zero, which confuses me because when I’m hungry, I expect a form of utility (not being hungry, which is better than being hungry) from eating. I’m probably confused on this point in some manner, though, so I’ll try to answer the question the way I understand it, which is that the more abstracted/cultural/etc utilities are removed. (Feel free to enlighten/flame me on this point.)
I expect that I’d probably do a number of things that I currently avoid, most of which would probably be clustered under “psychopathy”. I think there’s something wrong with them now, but I wouldn’t think that there was something wrong with them post-proof. Most of my behavior would probably stay the same due to enlightened self-interest, and I’m not sure what would change. For example, the child on the train tracks. My current moral system says I should pull them off, no argument. If you ripped that system away, I’d weigh off the possible benefit the child might bring me in the future (since it’s in my vicinity, it’s probably a First World kid with a better than average chance of a good education and a productive life) against considerations like overpopulation. I’d cheat on my Significant Other if I thought it would increase my expected happiness (roughly: “if I can get away with it”). I’d go on reading Overcoming Bias and being rational because rationality seems like a better tool for deciding what to eat when hungry, such as at the basic level of bread vs. candles, and generalise from there. (If that goes away, I probably die horribly from misnourishment.)
The post says “when you finally got hungry [...] what would you do after you were done eating?”, which I take to understand that I still have desire and reason to eat. But it also asks me to imagine a proof that all utilities are zero, which confuses me because when I’m hungry, I expect a form of utility (not being hungry, which is better than being hungry) from eating. I’m probably confused on this point in some manner, though, so I’ll try to answer the question the way I understand it, which is that the more abstracted/cultural/etc utilities are removed. (Feel free to enlighten/flame me on this point.)
I expect that I’d probably do a number of things that I currently avoid, most of which would probably be clustered under “psychopathy”. I think there’s something wrong with them now, but I wouldn’t think that there was something wrong with them post-proof. Most of my behavior would probably stay the same due to enlightened self-interest, and I’m not sure what would change. For example, the child on the train tracks. My current moral system says I should pull them off, no argument. If you ripped that system away, I’d weigh off the possible benefit the child might bring me in the future (since it’s in my vicinity, it’s probably a First World kid with a better than average chance of a good education and a productive life) against considerations like overpopulation. I’d cheat on my Significant Other if I thought it would increase my expected happiness (roughly: “if I can get away with it”). I’d go on reading Overcoming Bias and being rational because rationality seems like a better tool for deciding what to eat when hungry, such as at the basic level of bread vs. candles, and generalise from there. (If that goes away, I probably die horribly from misnourishment.)