7 - Therefore, the future will contain less net suffering
8 - Therefore, the future will be good
Could this be rewritten as “8. Therefore, the future will be better than the present” or would that change its meaning?
If it would change the meaning, then what do you mean by “good”? (Note: If you’re confused about why I’m confused about this, then note that it seems to me that 8 does not follow from 7 for the meaning of “good” I usually hear from EAs (something like “net positive utility”).)
My assumption was that, if things monotonically improve, then in the long run (perhaps the very, very long run) we will get to net positive. You are proposing that we might instead asymptote at some negative value, even though we are still always improving?
Could this be rewritten as “8. Therefore, the future will be better than the present” or would that change its meaning?
If it would change the meaning, then what do you mean by “good”? (Note: If you’re confused about why I’m confused about this, then note that it seems to me that 8 does not follow from 7 for the meaning of “good” I usually hear from EAs (something like “net positive utility”).)
Yeah, it would change the meaning.
My assumption was that, if things monotonically improve, then in the long run (perhaps the very, very long run) we will get to net positive. You are proposing that we might instead asymptote at some negative value, even though we are still always improving?
I wasn’t proposing that (I in fact think the present is already good), but rather was just trying to better understand what you meant.
Your comment clarified my understanding.