An example I think about a lot is the naturalistic fallacy. There is a lot horrible suffering that happens in the natural world, and a lot of people seem to be way too comfortable with that. We don’t have any really high leverage options right now to do anything about it, but it strikes me as plausible that even if we could do something about it, we wouldn’t want to. (perhaps even even make it worse by populating other planets with life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpcTJW4ur54)
It’s not just comfort. Institutions have baked in mechanisms to deflect blame when an event happens that is “natural”. So rather than comparing possible outcomes as a result of their actions and always picking the best one, letting nature happen is ok.
Examples: if a patient refuse treatment, letting them die “naturally” is less bad than attempting treatment and they die during the attempt.
Or the NRC protecting the public from radiation leaks with heavy regulation but not from the radioactives in coal ash that will be released as a consequence of NRC decisions.
Or the FDA delaying Moderna after it was ready in 1 weekend because it’s natural to die of a virus.
An example I think about a lot is the naturalistic fallacy. There is a lot horrible suffering that happens in the natural world, and a lot of people seem to be way too comfortable with that. We don’t have any really high leverage options right now to do anything about it, but it strikes me as plausible that even if we could do something about it, we wouldn’t want to. (perhaps even even make it worse by populating other planets with life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpcTJW4ur54)
It’s not just comfort. Institutions have baked in mechanisms to deflect blame when an event happens that is “natural”. So rather than comparing possible outcomes as a result of their actions and always picking the best one, letting nature happen is ok.
Examples: if a patient refuse treatment, letting them die “naturally” is less bad than attempting treatment and they die during the attempt.
Or the NRC protecting the public from radiation leaks with heavy regulation but not from the radioactives in coal ash that will be released as a consequence of NRC decisions.
Or the FDA delaying Moderna after it was ready in 1 weekend because it’s natural to die of a virus.