To bite the bullet here would be to accept that it would be morally right to kill and replace everyone with other beings who, collectively, have a (possibly only slightly) greater sum of well-being. If someone could do that.
The following are two similar scenarios:
Traditional Utilitarian Elimination: The sum of positive and negative well-being in the future will be negative if humans or sentient life continues to exist. Traditional utilitarianism implies that it would be right to kill all humans or all sentient beings on Earth painlessly.
Suboptimal Paradise: The world has become a paradise with no suffering. Someone can kill everyone in this paradise and replace them with beings with (possibly only slightly) more well-being in total. Traditional utilitarianism implies that it would be right to do so.
To bite the bullet regarding those two scenarios would be to accept that killing everyone would be morally right in those scenarios.
If you actually think that the only thing that matters is wellbeing, then personhood doesn’t matter, so it makes sense that you would endorse these conclusions in this thought experiment.
To bite the bullet here would be to accept that it would be morally right to kill and replace everyone with other beings who, collectively, have a (possibly only slightly) greater sum of well-being. If someone could do that.
The following are two similar scenarios:
Traditional Utilitarian Elimination: The sum of positive and negative well-being in the future will be negative if humans or sentient life continues to exist. Traditional utilitarianism implies that it would be right to kill all humans or all sentient beings on Earth painlessly.
Suboptimal Paradise: The world has become a paradise with no suffering. Someone can kill everyone in this paradise and replace them with beings with (possibly only slightly) more well-being in total. Traditional utilitarianism implies that it would be right to do so.
To bite the bullet regarding those two scenarios would be to accept that killing everyone would be morally right in those scenarios.
If you actually think that the only thing that matters is wellbeing, then personhood doesn’t matter, so it makes sense that you would endorse these conclusions in this thought experiment.