Here’s my defense against both of Tomi’s arguments. Remember, in PAVs, an outcome can only be better or worse if it is better or worse for someone. The utility of adding a person is undefined. It’s not zero. Consider the first problem. We can say that scenario B is better for the 100 existing people. We cannot say that scenario B is better or worse for the ten billion people who do not exist. We therefore cannot say that scenario B is better for the union of these two groups because a positive quantity plus undefined is just undefined. C is, however, better than B for all people together because we are now comparing the same groups.
The same logic applies to the scenario of Adam, Eve and Steve and prevents any issue.
Here’s my defense against both of Tomi’s arguments. Remember, in PAVs, an outcome can only be better or worse if it is better or worse for someone. The utility of adding a person is undefined. It’s not zero. Consider the first problem. We can say that scenario B is better for the 100 existing people. We cannot say that scenario B is better or worse for the ten billion people who do not exist. We therefore cannot say that scenario B is better for the union of these two groups because a positive quantity plus undefined is just undefined. C is, however, better than B for all people together because we are now comparing the same groups.
The same logic applies to the scenario of Adam, Eve and Steve and prevents any issue.