(shrug) Sure, if I live in a world where nothing I do can meaningfully advance anything which I value more than pleasure (either because I don’t value anything more than pleasure, or because it’s a post-scarcity world where I can’t meaningfully add value along any other axis), and I value pleasure at all, then I ought to wirehead, since it’s the possible act with the highest expected value.
Said more succinctly, if nothing else I do can matter, I might as well wirehead.
Relatedly, if we additionally posit that this fictional post-scarcity world is such that I get the same valuable benefits (happiness, pleasure, etc.) whether I wirehead or not, then I no longer ought to wirehead (though neither is it true that I ought not wirehead). In that world nothing I do or don’t do matters; there is no act X such that I ought to X or ought not X.
Which sounds kind of cool, actually, although I do realize there is social pressure to say otherwise.
(shrug) Sure, if I live in a world where nothing I do can meaningfully advance anything which I value more than pleasure (either because I don’t value anything more than pleasure, or because it’s a post-scarcity world where I can’t meaningfully add value along any other axis), and I value pleasure at all, then I ought to wirehead, since it’s the possible act with the highest expected value.
Said more succinctly, if nothing else I do can matter, I might as well wirehead.
Relatedly, if we additionally posit that this fictional post-scarcity world is such that I get the same valuable benefits (happiness, pleasure, etc.) whether I wirehead or not, then I no longer ought to wirehead (though neither is it true that I ought not wirehead). In that world nothing I do or don’t do matters; there is no act X such that I ought to X or ought not X.
Which sounds kind of cool, actually, although I do realize there is social pressure to say otherwise.