Comment by dissidia on Torture vs. Dust Specks · 2010-02-14T20:50:43.508Z · LW · GW

Ask this to yourself to make the question easier. What would you prefer, getting 3^^^3 dust specks in your eye or being hit with a spiked whip for 50 years.

You must live long enough to feel the 3^^^3 specks in your eye, and each one lasts a fraction of a second. You can feel nothing else but that speck in your eye.

So, it boils down to this question. Would you rather be whipped for 50 years or get specks in your eye for over a googleplex of years.

If I could possible put a marker of the utility of bad that a speck of dust in the eye is, and compare that to the negative utility that a year of depression could be, or being whipped once or having arms broken, it seems impossible that the 50 years of torture could give a more negative value.