The “Normal Ending” seems to have two problems. One is literary: the prominently displayed Chekhov’s gun never fired, and one is utilitarian: lack of choice, which strictly reduces the overall utility by removing even harmless options. Having no acceptable choices is what drives people to desperate actions, like suicide, and the immediate mandatory crunchy happiness without an outlet seems like a novice mistake for a utilitarian, something SHs would certainly recognize and avoid.
Another literary point: the prediction markets, a major part of the story, are not even mentioned in this ending, making me believe that Eliezer never intended to give the Normal Ending his full attention. Then again, some wildly successful books, like the Twilight series, unir nyy gur ohvyq-hc sbe gur svany onggyr jvgubhg bar rire unccravat.
Having no acceptable choices is what drives people to desperate actions, like suicide, and the immediate mandatory crunchy happiness without an outlet seems like a novice mistake for a utilitarian, something SHs would certainly recognize and avoid.
Having no acceptable choices drives humans to suicide. It’s already been shown that SHs aren’t perfect at predicting human psychology, and they may not have seen that.
The “Normal Ending” seems to have two problems. One is literary: the prominently displayed Chekhov’s gun never fired, and one is utilitarian: lack of choice, which strictly reduces the overall utility by removing even harmless options. Having no acceptable choices is what drives people to desperate actions, like suicide, and the immediate mandatory crunchy happiness without an outlet seems like a novice mistake for a utilitarian, something SHs would certainly recognize and avoid.
Another literary point: the prediction markets, a major part of the story, are not even mentioned in this ending, making me believe that Eliezer never intended to give the Normal Ending his full attention. Then again, some wildly successful books, like the Twilight series, unir nyy gur ohvyq-hc sbe gur svany onggyr jvgubhg bar rire unccravat.
Having no acceptable choices drives humans to suicide. It’s already been shown that SHs aren’t perfect at predicting human psychology, and they may not have seen that.