Actually, I wonder whether Alicorn personally cleaning and recycling that aluminum foil is the most effective use of her time, even by your standards. A great deal of recent discussion here seems to be defending the assertion that what she ought to do is work at her day job for the same period of time and then donate the resulting money to some group that recycles aluminum foil.
Unless User:Alicorn is currently using the time saved by not preserving metal for other activities which have the effect of saving more metal (or equivalent paperclip inputs), then there is no relevant opportunity cost to User:Alicorn preserving the aluminum for recycling.
If I have a choice between spending tomorrow doing activity A or activity B, and A saves N paperclip-equivalents and B saves 2N pe’s, surely you’d want me to do activity B, regardless of what I’m doing currently.
I suspect that Alicorn is currently using the time saved for activities that further her values. Are you using the time saved by not providing Alicorn with incentives to preserve metal to further your values for activities that save more equivalent paperclip inputs?
I did not claim that recycling the metal would have not be a benefit to Alicorn’s values, just that her current use of the time saved might have a larger benefit.
Did you mean: I did not claim that recycling the metal would have not be a benefit?[1]
My point is that User:Alicorn is not currently pursuing these other pro-earth strategies, so unless those are really being forgone via spending more effort to recycle metal, then User:Alicorn should spend more effort to recycle metal. If User:Alicorn wishes to do something even more efficient at preserving the stock of unentropized metal on earth, then User:Alicorn should do that instead. But I estimate based on the datapoints given here that most of User:Alicorn’s time is completely wasted in this regard.
[1] Generated from auto-Google module I recently installed.
My point is that User:Alicorn is not currently pursuing these other pro-earth strategies
How do you know she isn’t?
Why do you think that all of Alicorn’s values are about the earth? Human values are more complicated than that.
Even if Alicorn is behaving irrationally, she has told the incentives you could provide so she would help further your values? Since you haven’t done so, have you been spending the time you could have used to do so for something that better furthers your values?
All human values for the near future necessitate having a usable earth.
I’m not sure what the question is, but I presented reasoning that would persuade an intelligent, caring human to recycle the foil, and yes I have spent the past several days making the universe more paperclippy.
You values don’t include recycling and saving earth’s precious environment???
Actually, I wonder whether Alicorn personally cleaning and recycling that aluminum foil is the most effective use of her time, even by your standards. A great deal of recent discussion here seems to be defending the assertion that what she ought to do is work at her day job for the same period of time and then donate the resulting money to some group that recycles aluminum foil.
I don’t have a day job. I have odd jobs, and I cook for my room and board. (It’s pretty sweet.)
I stand corrected (or, well, sit).
Unless User:Alicorn is currently using the time saved by not preserving metal for other activities which have the effect of saving more metal (or equivalent paperclip inputs), then there is no relevant opportunity cost to User:Alicorn preserving the aluminum for recycling.
I don’t follow that.
If I have a choice between spending tomorrow doing activity A or activity B, and A saves N paperclip-equivalents and B saves 2N pe’s, surely you’d want me to do activity B, regardless of what I’m doing currently.
No?
You should do B instead of A.
I suspect that Alicorn is currently using the time saved for activities that further her values. Are you using the time saved by not providing Alicorn with incentives to preserve metal to further your values for activities that save more equivalent paperclip inputs?
Recycling metal helps User:Alicorn’s values by protecting the earth’s environment, so your premise is in error.
I did not claim that recycling the metal would have not be a benefit to Alicorn’s values, just that her current use of the time saved might have a larger benefit.
[Edit: spelling]
Did you mean: I did not claim that recycling the metal would have not be a benefit?[1]
My point is that User:Alicorn is not currently pursuing these other pro-earth strategies, so unless those are really being forgone via spending more effort to recycle metal, then User:Alicorn should spend more effort to recycle metal. If User:Alicorn wishes to do something even more efficient at preserving the stock of unentropized metal on earth, then User:Alicorn should do that instead. But I estimate based on the datapoints given here that most of User:Alicorn’s time is completely wasted in this regard.
[1] Generated from auto-Google module I recently installed.
How do you know she isn’t?
Why do you think that all of Alicorn’s values are about the earth? Human values are more complicated than that.
Even if Alicorn is behaving irrationally, she has told the incentives you could provide so she would help further your values? Since you haven’t done so, have you been spending the time you could have used to do so for something that better furthers your values?
From the datapoints I mentioned.
All human values for the near future necessitate having a usable earth.
I’m not sure what the question is, but I presented reasoning that would persuade an intelligent, caring human to recycle the foil, and yes I have spent the past several days making the universe more paperclippy.