Have your thought through all of the implications of a 1% discount rate? For example, have you considered that if you negotiate with someone who discounts the future less, say at 0.1% per year, you’ll end up trading the use of all of your resources after X number of years in exchange for use of his resources before X number of years, and so almost the entire future of the universe will be determined by the values of those whose discount rates are lower than yours?
I am pretty sure that many humans discount faster than this today, on entirely sensible and rational grounds. What dominates the future has to do with power and reproductive rates, as well as discounting—and things like senescence and fertility decline make discounting sensible.
Basically I think that you can’t really have a sensible discussion about this without distinguishing between instrumental discounting and ultimate discounting.
Instrumental discounting is inevitable—and can be fairly rapid. It is ultimate discounting that is more suspect.
I am pretty sure that many humans discount faster than this today, on entirely sensible and rational grounds. What dominates the future has to do with power and reproductive rates, as well as discounting—and things like senescence and fertility decline make discounting sensible.
Basically I think that you can’t really have a sensible discussion about this without distinguishing between instrumental discounting and ultimate discounting.
Instrumental discounting is inevitable—and can be fairly rapid. It is ultimate discounting that is more suspect.