And it says something about EITHER the unreliability of intuitions beyond run-of-the-mill situations, or about the insane variance in utility functions across people (and likely time)
I don’t think it’s really all that complicated, I suspect that you haven’t experienced a certain extent of negative valence which would be sufficient to update you towards understanding how bad suffering can get.
It would be like if you’ve never smelled anything worse than a fart, and you’re trying to gauge the mass of value of positive smells against the mass of value of negative smells. If you were trying to estimate what it would be like in a small room full of decaying dead animals and ammonia, or how long you’d willingly stay in that room, your intuitions would completely fail you.
but only minor changes in value toward the tails.
I have experienced qualia that is just slightly net negative, feeling like non-existence would be preferable all else equal. Then I’ve experienced states of qualia that are immensely worse than that. The distance between those two states is certainly far greater than the distance between neutral and extreme pleasure/fulfillment/euphoria etc. Suffering can just keep getting worse and worse far beyond the point at which all you can desire is to cease existing.
Yeah, I think I’m bowing out at this point. I don’t disagree that my suffering has been pretty minor in the scheme of things, but that’s kind of my whole point: everyone’s range of experiences is unique and incommunicable. Or at least mine is.
I don’t think it’s really all that complicated, I suspect that you haven’t experienced a certain extent of negative valence which would be sufficient to update you towards understanding how bad suffering can get.
It would be like if you’ve never smelled anything worse than a fart, and you’re trying to gauge the mass of value of positive smells against the mass of value of negative smells. If you were trying to estimate what it would be like in a small room full of decaying dead animals and ammonia, or how long you’d willingly stay in that room, your intuitions would completely fail you.
I have experienced qualia that is just slightly net negative, feeling like non-existence would be preferable all else equal. Then I’ve experienced states of qualia that are immensely worse than that. The distance between those two states is certainly far greater than the distance between neutral and extreme pleasure/fulfillment/euphoria etc. Suffering can just keep getting worse and worse far beyond the point at which all you can desire is to cease existing.
Yeah, I think I’m bowing out at this point. I don’t disagree that my suffering has been pretty minor in the scheme of things, but that’s kind of my whole point: everyone’s range of experiences is unique and incommunicable. Or at least mine is.