I have a point I have thought of in regards to Pascal’s Mugging where I notice I am confused: What if an entire localized area is being mugged?
Example: Assume you give into standard muggings. Someone drops off a collection box right near your house. The collection box says “For each person that steps near this box on a day, there must be a deposit of 5 dollars before one day passes or I will simulate and kill 3^^^3 people as a Matrix Lord. Any interference or questioning of the box will make me simulate and kill 3^^^^3 people as a Matrix Lord.”
Since we are assuming you are the kind of person who gives into standard muggings, when you step to within 1 foot near the box out of curiosity to read the text, you think “Yikes! That’s a standard Mugging!” and deposit 5 dollars, determined to not interfere with or question the box.
The next day, you get within 10 feet of the box when walking home. Do you give money to the box?
Do you give money if it’s a person repeating the same message over and over again?
What if you only get within 100 feet, or you can barely hear the message from your distance?
So my confusion is that making the assumption “I give into muggings.” Works fairly clearly for single target muggings, but it doesn’t resolve much at all in the case of a localized area of effect mugging. And there doesn’t seem to be reason to assume a mugging would not affect an area. Fake Muggers would certainly want more victims. A Real Matrix Lord might want to make demands from multiple people for their inscrutable purposes. And in my example the penalty for questioning is so bad it seems unlikely you could justify gathering information about what “near” meant to try resolving the problem.
This is clearly not a problem if you don’t give into muggings at all, but I realized it means that only giving into muggings alone doesn’t actually clearly define your behavior in a case like this. There’s the kind of a person who only gives when they are a foot away, and the kind of person who hears about the box from a mile away and still comes by and gives every day and the kind of person who shoots anyone who steps near the box because they might interfere, and the kind of person who shoots HIM because HE is interfering… I can see potential arguments any of these people could make for how they were trying to follow the will of the mugger, but none of them agree with each other at all.
Now that I’ve laid that out though, I’m not sure if that can be turned into a clear argument against muggings.
I have a point I have thought of in regards to Pascal’s Mugging where I notice I am confused: What if an entire localized area is being mugged?
Example: Assume you give into standard muggings. Someone drops off a collection box right near your house. The collection box says “For each person that steps near this box on a day, there must be a deposit of 5 dollars before one day passes or I will simulate and kill 3^^^3 people as a Matrix Lord. Any interference or questioning of the box will make me simulate and kill 3^^^^3 people as a Matrix Lord.”
Since we are assuming you are the kind of person who gives into standard muggings, when you step to within 1 foot near the box out of curiosity to read the text, you think “Yikes! That’s a standard Mugging!” and deposit 5 dollars, determined to not interfere with or question the box.
The next day, you get within 10 feet of the box when walking home. Do you give money to the box?
Do you give money if it’s a person repeating the same message over and over again?
What if you only get within 100 feet, or you can barely hear the message from your distance?
So my confusion is that making the assumption “I give into muggings.” Works fairly clearly for single target muggings, but it doesn’t resolve much at all in the case of a localized area of effect mugging. And there doesn’t seem to be reason to assume a mugging would not affect an area. Fake Muggers would certainly want more victims. A Real Matrix Lord might want to make demands from multiple people for their inscrutable purposes. And in my example the penalty for questioning is so bad it seems unlikely you could justify gathering information about what “near” meant to try resolving the problem.
This is clearly not a problem if you don’t give into muggings at all, but I realized it means that only giving into muggings alone doesn’t actually clearly define your behavior in a case like this. There’s the kind of a person who only gives when they are a foot away, and the kind of person who hears about the box from a mile away and still comes by and gives every day and the kind of person who shoots anyone who steps near the box because they might interfere, and the kind of person who shoots HIM because HE is interfering… I can see potential arguments any of these people could make for how they were trying to follow the will of the mugger, but none of them agree with each other at all.
Now that I’ve laid that out though, I’m not sure if that can be turned into a clear argument against muggings.