This seems to capture contemporary intuitions, which is good for an ethical theory. But I wonder about those constants, τ0, h0, and u0. Each is set to a baseline that we are used to: ordinary lifespan, ordinary happiness, and ordinary total utility of a life. Already, τ0 is over twice what it would have been hundreds of years ago. Likewise, I can’t judge whether the happiness or total utility of a peasant of hundreds of years ago was much different than today’s average, but that is at least plausible.
In short, this builds utility on human rather than transhuman foundations. Maybe that is a good thing.
I’m not sure that h0 should be interpreted as “ordinary happiness”, at least that’s not how I described it. Regarding τ0, human preferences are the product of evolution plus maybe to some extent culture. So, it should not be surprising if some of the parameters come either from the ancestral environment in which evolution happened or from the “memetically ancestral” environment in which the culture evolved. And, I am talking about a model of (modern?) human preferences, not about some kind of objective morality (which doesn’t exist).
This seems to capture contemporary intuitions, which is good for an ethical theory. But I wonder about those constants, τ0, h0, and u0. Each is set to a baseline that we are used to: ordinary lifespan, ordinary happiness, and ordinary total utility of a life. Already, τ0 is over twice what it would have been hundreds of years ago. Likewise, I can’t judge whether the happiness or total utility of a peasant of hundreds of years ago was much different than today’s average, but that is at least plausible.
In short, this builds utility on human rather than transhuman foundations. Maybe that is a good thing.
I’m not sure that h0 should be interpreted as “ordinary happiness”, at least that’s not how I described it. Regarding τ0, human preferences are the product of evolution plus maybe to some extent culture. So, it should not be surprising if some of the parameters come either from the ancestral environment in which evolution happened or from the “memetically ancestral” environment in which the culture evolved. And, I am talking about a model of (modern?) human preferences, not about some kind of objective morality (which doesn’t exist).