To steelman it, maybe he’s thinking of how it’s commonly seen as a tragedy for a chicken to be alive for only one week, but killing it after some X years is not as much of a tragedy.
Initially, this implied to me that the curve of “value of remaining alive’ is higher in the beginning of a lifespan. But thinking about it, that’s not the same curve as the curve of “value of being alive”, which is lowest in the beginning.
(If that’s confusing, it helps to think of the one curve as the mirror image of the other, i.e. if value of being alive is high later, it means the value of remaining alive “in order to see the later parts of life” is higher early on.)
It’s also possible to view the value of being alive as a flat line, a positive constant, which could lead to his idea of human fungibility. But to use a different example, if you make me choose between five individuals living one year and one individual living five years, I prefer the latter… Same with two people dying at 25 vs. one dying at 50. Fewer people living longer is better. I can only see this working out if it’s not a flat line: value of life increases with each year already lived.
To steelman it, maybe he’s thinking of how it’s commonly seen as a tragedy for a chicken to be alive for only one week, but killing it after some X years is not as much of a tragedy.
Initially, this implied to me that the curve of “value of remaining alive’ is higher in the beginning of a lifespan. But thinking about it, that’s not the same curve as the curve of “value of being alive”, which is lowest in the beginning.
(If that’s confusing, it helps to think of the one curve as the mirror image of the other, i.e. if value of being alive is high later, it means the value of remaining alive “in order to see the later parts of life” is higher early on.)
It’s also possible to view the value of being alive as a flat line, a positive constant, which could lead to his idea of human fungibility. But to use a different example, if you make me choose between five individuals living one year and one individual living five years, I prefer the latter… Same with two people dying at 25 vs. one dying at 50. Fewer people living longer is better. I can only see this working out if it’s not a flat line: value of life increases with each year already lived.