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Scope Insensitivity

TagLast edit: Sep 24, 2020, 6:57 PM by Ruby

The human brain can’t emotionally represent large quantities; an environmental measure that will save 200,000 birds doesn’t conjure anywhere near a hundred times the emotional impact and willingness-to-pay of a measure that would save 2,000 birds, even though in fact the former measure is two orders of magnitude more effective.

Blog posts

See also

Scope Insensitivity

Eliezer YudkowskyMay 14, 2007, 2:53 AM
341 points
69 comments2 min readLW link

Scope Insen­si­tivity Judo

Gordon Seidoh WorleyJul 19, 2019, 5:33 PM
22 points
3 comments6 min readLW link

One Life Against the World

Eliezer YudkowskyMay 18, 2007, 10:06 PM
125 points
84 comments3 min readLW link

Tor­ture vs. Dust Specks

Eliezer YudkowskyOct 30, 2007, 2:50 AM
83 points
630 comments1 min readLW link

Scope in­sen­si­tivity in juries

Scott AlexanderOct 2, 2010, 2:29 PM
13 points
1 comment1 min readLW link

Bore­dom vs. Scope Insensitivity

Wei DaiSep 24, 2009, 11:45 AM
57 points
40 comments3 min readLW link