Broken intuition pump. The fact that money isn’t utility (has diminishing returns) is actually very important here. I, for one, don’t think I can envision pooling and redistributing actual utility, at least not well enough to draw any conclusions whatsoever.
Also, a utility function might not be defined over selves at particular times, but over 4D universal histories, or even over the entire multiverse. (This is also relevant to your happiness vs. utility distinction, I think.)
What I’m getting at is that the decision society makes for how to distribute utility across different people, is very similar to the decision you make for how to distribute utility across your possible future selves.
Why do we think it’s reasonable to say that we should maximize average utility across all our possible future selves, when no one I know would say that we should maximize average utility across all living people?
Broken intuition pump. The fact that money isn’t utility (has diminishing returns) is actually very important here. I, for one, don’t think I can envision pooling and redistributing actual utility, at least not well enough to draw any conclusions whatsoever.
Also, a utility function might not be defined over selves at particular times, but over 4D universal histories, or even over the entire multiverse. (This is also relevant to your happiness vs. utility distinction, I think.)
What I’m getting at is that the decision society makes for how to distribute utility across different people, is very similar to the decision you make for how to distribute utility across your possible future selves.
Why do we think it’s reasonable to say that we should maximize average utility across all our possible future selves, when no one I know would say that we should maximize average utility across all living people?