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On Infinite Ethics
- coldtea 5y ago>Infinite ethics (i.e., ethical theory that considers infinite worlds) is important – both in theory and in practice. And yet we've managed without "infinite ethics" for several millenia, and having infinite ethics is not going to change anything (in fact, having an ethics never does, societal morals do). >The acausal way can get away with more mainstream science. But it requires funkier decision theory. Suppose you’re deciding whether to make a $5000 donation that will save a life, or to spend the money on a vacation with your family. And suppose, per various respectable cosmologies, that the universe is filled with an infinite number of people very much like you, faced with choices very much like yours. If you donate, this is strong evidence that they all donate, too. So evidential decision theory treats your donation as saving an infinite number of lives, and as sacrificing an infinite number of family vacations (does one outweigh the other? on what grounds?). Other non-causal decision theories, like FDT, will do the same. The stakes are high. And how about I, and everybody else, ignore those "stakes"? Can the author calculate the possibility for that? Because It's going to be infinitely close to 1.