You are dealing with an asymptote. There is a limit to how bad momentary eye-irritation can be, no matter how many people it happens to.
By positing that dust-speck irritation aggregates non-linearly with respect to number of persons, and thereby precisely exemplifying the scope-insensitivity that Eliezer is talking about, you are not making an argument against his thesis; instead, you are merely providing an example of what he’s warning against.
You are in effect saying that as the number of persons increases, the marginal badness of the suffering of each new victim decreases. But why is it more of an offense to put a speck in the eye of Person #1 than Person #6873?
Larry D’anna:
You are dealing with an asymptote. There is a limit to how bad momentary eye-irritation can be, no matter how many people it happens to.
By positing that dust-speck irritation aggregates non-linearly with respect to number of persons, and thereby precisely exemplifying the scope-insensitivity that Eliezer is talking about, you are not making an argument against his thesis; instead, you are merely providing an example of what he’s warning against.
You are in effect saying that as the number of persons increases, the marginal badness of the suffering of each new victim decreases. But why is it more of an offense to put a speck in the eye of Person #1 than Person #6873?