A dust speck in the eye with no external ill effects was chosen as the largest non-zero negative utility.
Torture, absent external effects (e.g., suicide), for any finite time, is a finite amount of negative utility.
Death in a world of literal immortality cuts off an infinite amount of utility.
There is a break in the continuum here.
If you don’t accept that dust specks are negative utility, you didn’t follow the rules. Pick a new tiny ill effect (like a stubbed toe) and rethink the problem.
If you still don’t like it because for a given utility n, n + n != 2n, there are then issues with circular preferences. Two units of utility are defined as twice as “utilitous” as one unit of utility. (This is not saying that two dollars are twice as good as one dollar.)
A dust speck in the eye with no external ill effects was chosen as the largest non-zero negative utility. Torture, absent external effects (e.g., suicide), for any finite time, is a finite amount of negative utility. Death in a world of literal immortality cuts off an infinite amount of utility. There is a break in the continuum here.
If you don’t accept that dust specks are negative utility, you didn’t follow the rules. Pick a new tiny ill effect (like a stubbed toe) and rethink the problem.
If you still don’t like it because for a given utility n, n + n != 2n, there are then issues with circular preferences. Two units of utility are defined as twice as “utilitous” as one unit of utility. (This is not saying that two dollars are twice as good as one dollar.)