“Wow, they should definitely put a bullet in that guy’s head ASAP,”
Consider the comparable real life situation. LessWrong has a policy against listing real life examples, so I won’t, but you should be able to think of some. While we’re at it, think about the reason LW has this policy.
“Wait, what’s the big deal, I don’t see anyone getting hurt here,”
You mean you don’t see anyone getting immediately hurt. With the kind of civilization affecting decisions that occur on star trek frequently have indirect effects that are orders of magnitude larger than their direct effects.
The problem is that fiction often removes the most compelling reasons that this sort of thinking doesn’t work in the real world (uncertainty regarding facts, uncertainty regarding moral reasoning), but tries to retain the moral ambiguity. I think I would be much happier if police were perfect virtue ethicists or deontological reasoners than is currently the case, but if Blofeld reveals his dastardly plans to Bond, I want as many bullets in his head as can be arranged in short order.
The problem is that fiction often removes the most compelling reasons that this sort of thinking doesn’t work in the real world (uncertainty regarding facts, uncertainty regarding moral reasoning)
To a certain extent this is true due to narrative requirement; however, to a certain extent it’s a realistic portrayal of what our certain states of knowledge can feel like from the inside.
Edit: Also this helps reduce the amount of memetic hazards in fiction.
Consider the comparable real life situation. LessWrong has a policy against listing real life examples, so I won’t, but you should be able to think of some. While we’re at it, think about the reason LW has this policy.
You mean you don’t see anyone getting immediately hurt. With the kind of civilization affecting decisions that occur on star trek frequently have indirect effects that are orders of magnitude larger than their direct effects.
The problem is that fiction often removes the most compelling reasons that this sort of thinking doesn’t work in the real world (uncertainty regarding facts, uncertainty regarding moral reasoning), but tries to retain the moral ambiguity. I think I would be much happier if police were perfect virtue ethicists or deontological reasoners than is currently the case, but if Blofeld reveals his dastardly plans to Bond, I want as many bullets in his head as can be arranged in short order.
To a certain extent this is true due to narrative requirement; however, to a certain extent it’s a realistic portrayal of what our certain states of knowledge can feel like from the inside.
Edit: Also this helps reduce the amount of memetic hazards in fiction.