Well, 3^^^3 dust specks in people’s eyes imply that order of magnitude of people existing, which is an… interesting world, and sounds good news on its own. While 3^^^3 dust specks in the same person’s eyes imply that they and the whole Earth get obliterated by a relativistic sand jet that promptly collapses into a black hole, so yeah.
But way-too-literal interpretations aside, I would say this argument is why I don’t think total sum utilitarianism is any good. I’d rather pick a version like “imagine you’re born as a random sentient in this universe, would you take your chances?”. High average, low standard deviation of the utility distribution. Which admittedly still allows the occasional Omelas, but that’s far from the worst I can imagine.
Well, 3^^^3 dust specks in people’s eyes imply that order of magnitude of people existing, which is an… interesting world, and sounds good news on its own. While 3^^^3 dust specks in the same person’s eyes imply that they and the whole Earth get obliterated by a relativistic sand jet that promptly collapses into a black hole, so yeah.
But way-too-literal interpretations aside, I would say this argument is why I don’t think total sum utilitarianism is any good. I’d rather pick a version like “imagine you’re born as a random sentient in this universe, would you take your chances?”. High average, low standard deviation of the utility distribution. Which admittedly still allows the occasional Omelas, but that’s far from the worst I can imagine.