If your interpretation of the thought experiment is that suffering cannot be mapped onto a single number, then the logical corollary is that it is meaningless to “minimize suffering”. Because any ordering you can place on the different possible amounts of suffering an organism experiences implies that they can be mapped onto a single number.
I’m saying the amount of suffering is not just the output of some algorithm or something written in memory. I would define it functionally/behaviourally, if at all, although possibly at the level of internal behaviour, not external behaviour. But it would be more complex than your hypothesis makes it out to be.
If your interpretation of the thought experiment is that suffering cannot be mapped onto a single number, then the logical corollary is that it is meaningless to “minimize suffering”. Because any ordering you can place on the different possible amounts of suffering an organism experiences implies that they can be mapped onto a single number.
I’m saying the amount of suffering is not just the output of some algorithm or something written in memory. I would define it functionally/behaviourally, if at all, although possibly at the level of internal behaviour, not external behaviour. But it would be more complex than your hypothesis makes it out to be.