Enjoyable dialogues. I am convinced of the “all in one place” argument from a strictly efficiency standpoint. Even more so if we have a lot less money than the example where diminishing returns (some beds that need bednets are out in the wilderness far from roads, you do those last) will not matter.
A (fairly unorigonal) utilitarianism problem that I find myself often toying with is something like the following:
What if we could spend the $1 billion on a brain in a jar connected to the matrix. We can feed that brain the sensation of a day at the beach. Then wipe its memory (to avoid diminishing returns) and then feed it that exact sensation again. Then repeat. Even better, (Using science!) we can overclock this process like crazy and can lead this brain through its day at the beach millions of times per second. In some sense this is a staggeringly good return on investment. It also does something weird to the veil of ignorance “you could be any one of the instances of that brain! They will soon outnumber the population of real humans so most likely you either get a nice day at the beach or you don’t exist at all”.
Enjoyable dialogues. I am convinced of the “all in one place” argument from a strictly efficiency standpoint. Even more so if we have a lot less money than the example where diminishing returns (some beds that need bednets are out in the wilderness far from roads, you do those last) will not matter.
A (fairly unorigonal) utilitarianism problem that I find myself often toying with is something like the following:
What if we could spend the $1 billion on a brain in a jar connected to the matrix. We can feed that brain the sensation of a day at the beach. Then wipe its memory (to avoid diminishing returns) and then feed it that exact sensation again. Then repeat. Even better, (Using science!) we can overclock this process like crazy and can lead this brain through its day at the beach millions of times per second. In some sense this is a staggeringly good return on investment. It also does something weird to the veil of ignorance “you could be any one of the instances of that brain! They will soon outnumber the population of real humans so most likely you either get a nice day at the beach or you don’t exist at all”.
I would be interested in what you think.