You’re conflating “utility” and “pleasure”. The aggregation function to use for multiple people is a question of some concern, but I think most of us would agree that maximizing utility is more complex than just wireheading.
Is there a positive utility value to pleasure? Obviously there is. But can you just “shut up and multiply” that, figure out that you get more utility from wireheading then from anything else, that and then decide that that’s the right choice? Obviously not, because human value is complex, and you can’t just give up one value to create utility somewhere else, not even for arbitrarily large amounts of pleasure.
I am arguing that the same is true for things with negative utility. Is there a negative utility value to a minor annoyance? Sure. But that doesn’t mean that we should give up other values, like “torturing people is wrong” in order to avoid annoyances, not even for arbitrarily large values of annoyances.
You’re conflating “utility” and “pleasure”. The aggregation function to use for multiple people is a question of some concern, but I think most of us would agree that maximizing utility is more complex than just wireheading.
Yes, that was my exact point.
Is there a positive utility value to pleasure? Obviously there is. But can you just “shut up and multiply” that, figure out that you get more utility from wireheading then from anything else, that and then decide that that’s the right choice? Obviously not, because human value is complex, and you can’t just give up one value to create utility somewhere else, not even for arbitrarily large amounts of pleasure.
I am arguing that the same is true for things with negative utility. Is there a negative utility value to a minor annoyance? Sure. But that doesn’t mean that we should give up other values, like “torturing people is wrong” in order to avoid annoyances, not even for arbitrarily large values of annoyances.