I care about what to measure (utility function) as much as I care about when to measure it (time function). For any measure, there’s a way to maximize it, and I’d like to see whatever measure humans decide is appropriate to be maximized across as much time as possible. So worrying about far future events is important insofar as I’d like my values to be maximized even then.
As for worrying about ice cubes, you’re right, it would be inconsistent of me to say otherwise, so I will say that I do. However, I apply a weighted scale of care, and our future galactic empire tends to weigh pretty heavily when compared with something like that.
ETA: Care about ice cube loss is so small I can’t feel it. Dealing with entropy / resource consumption, my caring gets large enough I can start feeling it around the point of owning and operating large home appliances, automobiles, etc., and ramps up drastically for things like inefficient power plants, creating new humans, and war.
I care about what to measure (utility function) as much as I care about when to measure it (time function). For any measure, there’s a way to maximize it, and I’d like to see whatever measure humans decide is appropriate to be maximized across as much time as possible. So worrying about far future events is important insofar as I’d like my values to be maximized even then.
As for worrying about ice cubes, you’re right, it would be inconsistent of me to say otherwise, so I will say that I do. However, I apply a weighted scale of care, and our future galactic empire tends to weigh pretty heavily when compared with something like that.
ETA: Care about ice cube loss is so small I can’t feel it. Dealing with entropy / resource consumption, my caring gets large enough I can start feeling it around the point of owning and operating large home appliances, automobiles, etc., and ramps up drastically for things like inefficient power plants, creating new humans, and war.