Suppose I destroy the timeline, and create an identical one. Have I committed a moral evil? No, because nothing has been lost.
Suppose I destroy the timeline, and restart from an earlier point. Have I committed a moral evil? Very much yes. What was lost? To give only one person’s example from Flight of the Navigator out of a planet of billions, out of a whole universe, the younger brother who was left behind had spent years—of personal growth, of creating value and memories—helping his parents with their quixotic search. And then bonding with the new younger “older” brother, rejoicing with his parents, marvelling at the space ship. And then he was erased.
These experiences aren’t undone. They are stopped. There is a difference. Something happy that happens, and then is over, still counts as a happy thing.
You destroy valuable lives. You also create valuable lives. If creating things has as much value as maintaining them does, then the act of creative destruction is morally neutral. Since the only reasons that I can think of why maintaining lives might matter are also reasons that the existence of life is a good thing, I think that maintenance and creation are morally equal.
I don’t disagree that things are lost. But on the other hand, there are things that the new timeline has that the old timeline didn’t as well. In the new timeline, the younger brother also has experiences that his counterpart in the old timeline did not.
By choosing not to destroy the timeline to create a new one, you deny the new-timeline younger brother his experiences, as well as everyone else in the new universe. Either way, something is lost. It seems that the only reason to treat the original universe as special is status-quo bias.
Suppose I destroy the timeline, and create an identical one. Have I committed a moral evil? No, because nothing has been lost.
Suppose I destroy the timeline, and restart from an earlier point. Have I committed a moral evil? Very much yes. What was lost? To give only one person’s example from Flight of the Navigator out of a planet of billions, out of a whole universe, the younger brother who was left behind had spent years—of personal growth, of creating value and memories—helping his parents with their quixotic search. And then bonding with the new younger “older” brother, rejoicing with his parents, marvelling at the space ship. And then he was erased.
These experiences aren’t undone. They are stopped. There is a difference. Something happy that happens, and then is over, still counts as a happy thing.
You destroy valuable lives. You also create valuable lives. If creating things has as much value as maintaining them does, then the act of creative destruction is morally neutral. Since the only reasons that I can think of why maintaining lives might matter are also reasons that the existence of life is a good thing, I think that maintenance and creation are morally equal.
Suppose I have the opportunity to end literally all suffering in the universe, and choose not to.
I don’t disagree that things are lost. But on the other hand, there are things that the new timeline has that the old timeline didn’t as well. In the new timeline, the younger brother also has experiences that his counterpart in the old timeline did not.
By choosing not to destroy the timeline to create a new one, you deny the new-timeline younger brother his experiences, as well as everyone else in the new universe. Either way, something is lost. It seems that the only reason to treat the original universe as special is status-quo bias.