Executive summary: The post argues that several common philosophical views—including the complexity of value, moral uncertainty, and caring about preference satisfaction—actually imply putting more priority on avoiding catastrophic suffering (s-risk) than maximizing positive value.
Key points:
Complexity of value but simplicity of suffering implies suffering is more energy-efficient, so worst cases outweigh best cases.
Moral uncertainty leans towards suffering being worse than happiness is good.
Caring about preferences suggests anti-frustrationism, which weighs dissatisfaction more than satisfaction.
These undermine common appeals to symmetry as a reason not to focus on s-risk.
They suggest moral views often point to more concern for avoiding the worst rather than maximizing the best.
None definitively say s-risk should dominate, but shift priority towards avoiding downside risks.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, andcontact us if you have feedback.
Executive summary: The post argues that several common philosophical views—including the complexity of value, moral uncertainty, and caring about preference satisfaction—actually imply putting more priority on avoiding catastrophic suffering (s-risk) than maximizing positive value.
Key points:
Complexity of value but simplicity of suffering implies suffering is more energy-efficient, so worst cases outweigh best cases.
Moral uncertainty leans towards suffering being worse than happiness is good.
Caring about preferences suggests anti-frustrationism, which weighs dissatisfaction more than satisfaction.
These undermine common appeals to symmetry as a reason not to focus on s-risk.
They suggest moral views often point to more concern for avoiding the worst rather than maximizing the best.
None definitively say s-risk should dominate, but shift priority towards avoiding downside risks.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.