promethea.incorporated

brave and steely-eyed and morally pure and a bit terrifying… /testimonials /evil /leet .ask? .ask_long?

Reminder

nostalgebraist:

ozymandias271:

fnord888:

ozymandias271:

socialjusticemunchkin:

sonatagreen:

In accordance with the schedule, as of today (Sweetmorn, the 18th of Discord), the official debate topic is now Torture vs. Dust Specks. Please proceed accordingly.

This. Nobody has the neurons to comprehend 3^^^3 properly so all arguments resting on trying to replace it with a comprehensible number are invalid by definition.

every action you take has at least a 1/3^^^3 chance of causing or preventing torture

by extension if you’re a dust specker you should be making all your decisions based on whether or not they have a vanishingly small chance of affecting someone being tortured

Hey now, Pascal’s Wager is next month.

this is NOT pascal’s wager as it is not “small chance of infinite benefit” it is “small chance of (comparatively) small benefit” and is intended to point out that 3^^^3 is REALLY BIG

also is arguing ABOUT the thought experiment torture v. dust specks technically an instance of arguing about torture v. dust specks because I think it continues to be a bad idea to use torture in thought experiments unless the thought experiment is actually about “what if the bad thing???? were justified???? in an extreme circumstance?????” + also that kind of thought experiment is tacky and I hate it

ETA: HEY WAIT next month is “social justice: has it gone too far or not far enough?” NOT pascal’s wager, pascal’s wager has to wait for utilitarianism grab bag with everyone else, I am looking forward to claiming that all instances of bad SJ are in fact instances of insufficient SJ

torture vs. dust specks is controversial because no one agrees about how to do utilitarian aggregation, but without a known aggregation rule utilitarianism has no consequences (or rather, “utilitarianism” just means choosing an ad hoc aggregation rule case-by-case with no underlying theory), so the torture vs. dust specks debate shows that utilitarianism doesn’t (currently) exist

I am looking forward to claiming that all instances of bad SJ are in fact instances of insufficient SJ

You have my sword bow axe KBP V60 MTS-Q

3 months ago · tagged #steel feminism · 80 notes · source: sonatagreen · .permalink

  1. sonatagreen reblogged this from metagorgon and added:
    Nono, the interminable argument is the dust-specks option. The minor annoyance of seeing yet another TvDS post...
  2. almostcoralchaos reblogged this from ozymandias271
  3. another-normal-anomaly reblogged this from skeletontemple
  4. skeletontemple reblogged this from ozymandias271
  5. metagorgon reblogged this from nothingismoral and added:
    We’re all being simulated so we can carry out this argument in the mind of the decider. The fifty years of torture is in...
  6. nothingismoral reblogged this from ozymandias271 and added:
    That’s why dust speckers don’t think about this - it’s the only way to prevent torturing themselves over it for 50+...
  7. philippesaner reblogged this from nostalgebraist and added:
    Utilitarianism is rubbish and the best moral theory is ad-hoc-ism.
  8. osberend reblogged this from ozymandias271 and added:
    But how many dust speckers are strict consequentialists? Because this argument seems to fall into the common trap of...
  9. lostpuntinentofalantis reblogged this from nostalgebraist and added:
    Oh! I think I agree for the most part. I think I just have a different mental strategy for dealing with...
  10. cofinaldestination reblogged this from ozymandias271
  11. thetransintransgenic reblogged this from ozymandias271 and added:
    During the month of Utilitarianism-Related Grab Bag (or possibly the month of IDK, Probably Moldbug Or Something) I...
  12. urpriest reblogged this from shlevy and added:
    Most such theories still have to worry about aggregation over time on one individual, though. Eudaimonia, maybe not,...
  13. shlevy reblogged this from lostpuntinentofalantis and added:
    FWIW, egoistic ethical theories (or, at least, eudaimonistic virtue ethics) actually don’t have to worry about...
  14. mitoticcephalopod reblogged this from nostalgebraist
  15. nostalgebraist reblogged this from lostpuntinentofalantis and added:
    I’m not saying that aggregation (in the sense of “taking multiple people into consideration”) is bad.My point is that if...