I would be interested in this same concept but framed so as to compare personal utility instead of impersonal utility, because I feel like I’m trying to estimate other people’s values for personal utility and aggregate them in order to get an idea of impersonal utility. It seems tricky, though:
- How many {50} year old {friends/family members/strangers} would you save vs {5} year old {friends/family members/strangers}?
This seems straightforward, except maybe it’s necessary to add “considering only your own benefit” if we want personal utilities that we can aggregate instead of a mixture of personal and impersonal utilities.
- How many 50 year old yourselves would you save vs 5 year old yourselves?
This one doesn’t make much sense to me, and if I try to frame it differently, e.g.
“imagine a group of 50-74 year olds and a group of <5 year olds. There’s a treatment that saves {X} 50 year olds and {Y} 5 year olds, and the <5 year olds dictate who gets it. What is the minimum X:Y for there to be a 50% chance of choosing the 50-74 year olds?”
My first thought is there’s no way to sensibly answer this question because 3 year olds are incredibly stubborn and also won’t understand.
Anyway, don’t know if this is very helpful, but that was my first response to the app and the result of my first few minutes thinking about it.
I would be interested in this same concept but framed so as to compare personal utility instead of impersonal utility, because I feel like I’m trying to estimate other people’s values for personal utility and aggregate them in order to get an idea of impersonal utility. It seems tricky, though:
- How many {50} year old {friends/family members/strangers} would you save vs {5} year old {friends/family members/strangers}?
This seems straightforward, except maybe it’s necessary to add “considering only your own benefit” if we want personal utilities that we can aggregate instead of a mixture of personal and impersonal utilities.
- How many 50 year old yourselves would you save vs 5 year old yourselves?
This one doesn’t make much sense to me, and if I try to frame it differently, e.g.
“imagine a group of 50-74 year olds and a group of <5 year olds. There’s a treatment that saves {X} 50 year olds and {Y} 5 year olds, and the <5 year olds dictate who gets it. What is the minimum X:Y for there to be a 50% chance of choosing the 50-74 year olds?”
My first thought is there’s no way to sensibly answer this question because 3 year olds are incredibly stubborn and also won’t understand.
Anyway, don’t know if this is very helpful, but that was my first response to the app and the result of my first few minutes thinking about it.