Bostrom estimates that just one second of delayed colonization equals 100 trillion human lives lost. Therefore taking action today for accelerating humanity’s expansion into the universe yields an impact of 100 trillion human lives saved for every second that it’s is brought closer to the present.
I don’t much care for this rhetorically sneaky way of smudging the way we feel the import of “lives lost” and “lives saved” so as to try to make it also cover “lives that never happen” or “lives that might potentially happen.” There’s an Every Sperm is Sacred silliness at work here. Do you mourn the millions of lives lost to vasectomy?
I kind of have similar feelings. I’d need an answer for the Mere addition paradox/repugnant conclusion before I could compare these. I do find the conclusion repugnant, so I must take issue with the premises somehow. My current inclination is to reject the first step: the idea that a universe with more lives worth living is better than one with less, but I’m not especially confident that I’ve entirely resolved it that way.
Living in Many Worlds has really influenced my thinking about future population sizes. It’s more important to me that quality of life is high than that we maximize lives barely worth living. That could also be taken to extremes: why not have a population of one? But I think there are good reasons not to take it that far.
Well, there was some love for the person affecting view at the end of the video. Note that one that ascribes to the totalist view might not only mourn every sperm but every potential worthwhile mind.
I don’t much care for this rhetorically sneaky way of smudging the way we feel the import of “lives lost” and “lives saved” so as to try to make it also cover “lives that never happen” or “lives that might potentially happen.” There’s an Every Sperm is Sacred silliness at work here. Do you mourn the millions of lives lost to vasectomy?
I kind of have similar feelings. I’d need an answer for the Mere addition paradox/repugnant conclusion before I could compare these. I do find the conclusion repugnant, so I must take issue with the premises somehow. My current inclination is to reject the first step: the idea that a universe with more lives worth living is better than one with less, but I’m not especially confident that I’ve entirely resolved it that way.
Living in Many Worlds has really influenced my thinking about future population sizes. It’s more important to me that quality of life is high than that we maximize lives barely worth living. That could also be taken to extremes: why not have a population of one? But I think there are good reasons not to take it that far.
Well, there was some love for the person affecting view at the end of the video. Note that one that ascribes to the totalist view might not only mourn every sperm but every potential worthwhile mind.