I’m not so sure. Would your underlying intuition be the same if the torture and death was the result of passive inaction, rather than of deliberate action? I think in that case, the torture and death would make only a small difference in how good or bad we judged the world to be.
For example, consider a corporate culture with so much of this dominance hierarchy that it has a high suicide rate.
Also:
Moloch whose buildings are judgment! … Lacklove and manless in Moloch! … Moloch who frightened me out of my natural ecstasy!
… Real holy laughter in the river! They saw it all! the wild eyes! the holy yells! They bade farewell! They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving!
Doesn’t seem like a difference of kind, and maybe not even of degree. (The suicide rate is a couple percent, and higher in industrialized countries if I recall. What percent of the citizens of Oceania are tortured to death? ~2%?) I think 1984 is mainly shocking because of status quo bias. (But I haven’t read it, so I’m probably missing some stronger points against that world.)
Most of the badness seems to be from the general state of both worlds, rather than from the occasional person tortured to death on the side. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a small, but obvious, part of much deeper problems. That’s why EA doesn’t use suicide rate or incarceration rate as their primary metrics to optimize for. They’re just symptoms.
I’m not so sure. Would your underlying intuition be the same if the torture and death was the result of passive inaction, rather than of deliberate action? I think in that case, the torture and death would make only a small difference in how good or bad we judged the world to be.
For example, consider a corporate culture with so much of this dominance hierarchy that it has a high suicide rate.
Also:
— Meditations on Moloch/Howl
Doesn’t seem like a difference of kind, and maybe not even of degree. (The suicide rate is a couple percent, and higher in industrialized countries if I recall. What percent of the citizens of Oceania are tortured to death? ~2%?) I think 1984 is mainly shocking because of status quo bias. (But I haven’t read it, so I’m probably missing some stronger points against that world.)
Most of the badness seems to be from the general state of both worlds, rather than from the occasional person tortured to death on the side. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a small, but obvious, part of much deeper problems. That’s why EA doesn’t use suicide rate or incarceration rate as their primary metrics to optimize for. They’re just symptoms.