This argument does not show that putting dust specks in the eyes of 3^^^3 people is better than torturing one person for 50 years. It shows that putting dust specks in the eyes of 3^^^3 people and then telling them they helped save someone from torture is better than torturing one person for 50 years.
This argument does not show that putting dust specks in the eyes of 3^^^3 people is better than torturing one person for 50 years. It shows that putting dust specks in the eyes of 3^^^3 people and then telling them they helped save someone from torture is better than torturing one person for 50 years.
Yes—though it does mean Eliezer has to assume that the reader’s implausible state of knowledge is not and will not be shared by many of the 3^^^3.
Dust, it turns out, is not naturally occurring, but is only produced as a byproduct of thought experiments.