RE: Torture yet again

From: Jesse Mazer <lasermazer.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 00:43:32 -0400

Jonathan Colvin wrote:
>
>Eugen Leitl wrote:
> >> (JC) Now, the funny thing is, if you replace "torture" by
> >"getting shot in
> >> the head", then I will pick (2). That's interesting, isn't it?
> >
> >Why is that interesting? It's indistinguishable from a
> >teleportation scenario.
>
>Before thinking about it, I would have assumed that I would make the same
>choices under the circumstances of torture or getting shot. I was surprised
>that this is not the case; I choose 50/50 under torture, and the copies
>under getting shot.
>
>Stathis and Bruno choose the copies under both scenarious (I assume). So it
>is interesting (to me, anyway), that I make different choices depending on
>what the undesirable event is. Perhaps I'm simply being inconsistent. But I
>think my reasoning is that so long as I have at least one copy that
>survives, I don't care about getting shot. But however many copies I have,
>I
>still don't want to get tortured.

Suppose there had already been a copy made, and the two of you were sitting
side-by-side, with the torturer giving you the following options:

A. He will flip a coin, and one of you two will get tortured
B. He points to you and says "I'm definitely going to torture the guy
sitting there, but while I'm sharpening my knives he can press a button that
makes additional copies of him as many times as he can."

Would this change your decision in any way? What if you are the copy in this
scenario, with a clear memory of having been the "original" earlier but then
pressing a button and finding yourself suddenly standing in the copying
chamber--would that make you more likely to choose B?

Jesse
Received on Wed Jun 22 2005 - 00:45:06 PDT