Ben:
“but a vote the other way potentially has 3^^^3 dust specks on your conscience—by your definition a much greater sin. Square one—shut up and vote!”
When presented with voting, each of the 3^^^3-1 people favored the dust specks (and their larger natural harm) to the torture (and its larger aggregated “mental distress”). The mental distress exists only on the basis of “sacred values”. To say that in the face of 3^^^3-1 people preferring specks to torture, you should vote torture on the naive utility construction (no external effects of torture or specks) is paternalistic. If I know from reading the universe’s configuration file that an apple is worth 10 utils and a pear is worth 9 utils, I should give the customer what he asks for, not an apple. Maybe an apple fell on him and the irrational fear of apples grants them −1.5 utils. The actors have found that harms outside the event described dictate their choices.
Ben:
“but a vote the other way potentially has 3^^^3 dust specks on your conscience—by your definition a much greater sin. Square one—shut up and vote!”
When presented with voting, each of the 3^^^3-1 people favored the dust specks (and their larger natural harm) to the torture (and its larger aggregated “mental distress”). The mental distress exists only on the basis of “sacred values”. To say that in the face of 3^^^3-1 people preferring specks to torture, you should vote torture on the naive utility construction (no external effects of torture or specks) is paternalistic. If I know from reading the universe’s configuration file that an apple is worth 10 utils and a pear is worth 9 utils, I should give the customer what he asks for, not an apple. Maybe an apple fell on him and the irrational fear of apples grants them −1.5 utils. The actors have found that harms outside the event described dictate their choices.