I agree. You could substitute “happy people” with anything.
But I don’t think it proves too much. I don’t want to have as much money as possible, I don’t want to have as much ice cream as possible. There seems to be in general some amount that is enough.
With happy people/QALYs, it is a bit trickier. I sure am happy for anyone who leads a happy life, but I don’t, on a gut level, think that a world with 10^50 happy people is worse than a world with 10^51 happy people.
Total Utilitarianism made me override my intuitions in the past and think that 10^51 people would be way better than 10^50, but this thought experiment made me less confident of that.
Though I do agree with the other commenters here, that just because total Utilitarianism breaks down in the extreme cases, that does not mean we have to doubt more common sense beliefs like “future people matter as much as current people”.
What if the devil would offer you $1, and the same “infinite” offer to double it [by an amount that would mean, to you personally, twice the utility. This might mean doubling it 10x] with a 90% probability [and a 10% probability that you get nothing].
Would you stop doubling at some point?
If so—would you say this proves that at some point you don’t want any more utility?
I agree. You could substitute “happy people” with anything.
But I don’t think it proves too much. I don’t want to have as much money as possible, I don’t want to have as much ice cream as possible. There seems to be in general some amount that is enough.
With happy people/QALYs, it is a bit trickier. I sure am happy for anyone who leads a happy life, but I don’t, on a gut level, think that a world with 10^50 happy people is worse than a world with 10^51 happy people.
Total Utilitarianism made me override my intuitions in the past and think that 10^51 people would be way better than 10^50, but this thought experiment made me less confident of that.
Though I do agree with the other commenters here, that just because total Utilitarianism breaks down in the extreme cases, that does not mean we have to doubt more common sense beliefs like “future people matter as much as current people”.
What if the devil would offer you $1, and the same “infinite” offer to double it [by an amount that would mean, to you personally, twice the utility. This might mean doubling it 10x] with a 90% probability [and a 10% probability that you get nothing].
Would you stop doubling at some point?
If so—would you say this proves that at some point you don’t want any more utility?