“”I think America has better values than Pakistan does, but that doesn’t mean I want us invading them, let alone razing their culture to the ground and replacing it with our own”—why not? No, seriously. America invaded several Muslim (fundamentalist Muslim, not we-kinda-like-Quran-stop-accusing-us-of-ISIS Muslim) countries already anyway. Why not raze the fundamentalist culture to the ground and replace it with universal?”
Preserving their culture is part of their utility function. Destroying their culture just like that is not ethical for the same reason why it is unethical to torture people just like that: both reduce their utility function, and the utility functions of other minds are included in our utility function. Therefore, only the most harmful elements of culture (religion) should be destroyed, and very gradually.
In addition, very often actions that are unethical from a dientological point of view simply will not work, because people will start to resist, and you will not reap the fruits of your unethical sacrifices. If you invade Pakistan and destroy all the mosques, a week later the country will be on fire in a general uprising, and you will not get any economic growth associated with an improvement in the political situation.
I’m not a radical dientologicalist, and I can imagine situations where something really unethical should be done, like taking over the country for the common good. But this particular plan is stupid.
“”I think America has better values than Pakistan does, but that doesn’t mean I want us invading them, let alone razing their culture to the ground and replacing it with our own”—why not? No, seriously. America invaded several Muslim (fundamentalist Muslim, not we-kinda-like-Quran-stop-accusing-us-of-ISIS Muslim) countries already anyway. Why not raze the fundamentalist culture to the ground and replace it with universal?”
Preserving their culture is part of their utility function. Destroying their culture just like that is not ethical for the same reason why it is unethical to torture people just like that: both reduce their utility function, and the utility functions of other minds are included in our utility function. Therefore, only the most harmful elements of culture (religion) should be destroyed, and very gradually.
In addition, very often actions that are unethical from a dientological point of view simply will not work, because people will start to resist, and you will not reap the fruits of your unethical sacrifices. If you invade Pakistan and destroy all the mosques, a week later the country will be on fire in a general uprising, and you will not get any economic growth associated with an improvement in the political situation.
I’m not a radical dientologicalist, and I can imagine situations where something really unethical should be done, like taking over the country for the common good. But this particular plan is stupid.