It’s also the reason why I want people to reset their zero point such that helpful actions do in fact feel like they push the world into the positive. That gives a positive reinforcement to helpful actions, rather than punishing oneself from any departure from helpful actions.
I just want to point out that, while two utility functions that differ only in zero point produce the same outcomes, a single utility function with a dynamically moving zero-point does not. If I just pushed the world into the positive yesterday, why do I have to do it again today? The human brain is more clever than that and, to successfully get away with it, you’d have to be using some really nonstandard utilitarianism.
I just want to point out that, while two utility functions that differ only in zero point produce the same outcomes, a single utility function with a dynamically moving zero-point does not. If I just pushed the world into the positive yesterday, why do I have to do it again today? The human brain is more clever than that and, to successfully get away with it, you’d have to be using some really nonstandard utilitarianism.
Of course you shouldn’t plan to reset the zero point after actions! That’s very different.
I use this sparingly, for observing big new facts that I didn’t cause to be true. That doesn’t change the relative expected utilities of various actions, so long as my expected change in utility from future observations is zero.