tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672880129970799148.post6140733007029317987..comments2023-08-22T07:01:08.590-07:00Comments on Agent Intellect: The Unconscious ViolinistJim S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/15538540873375357030noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672880129970799148.post-58926852712420954182020-08-27T11:19:23.508-07:002020-08-27T11:19:23.508-07:00Another disanalogy is that pregnant women often (n...Another disanalogy is that pregnant women often (not always) have an emotional attachment to their babies/fetuses/whatever you want to call them. But the person in the thought experiment has no such attachment to the violinist, even if they love music.Jim S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15538540873375357030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6672880129970799148.post-58883648155248668012020-08-27T08:49:20.824-07:002020-08-27T08:49:20.824-07:00There are some other factors that seem to change t...There are some other factors that seem to change the analogy. What if for those 9 months you aren't chained to a bed. You can largely go about your life as you did before, granted several caveats - you sometimes ache in your feet and back, you have some trouble sleeping, you're hot all the time, you don't fit in your clothes, you can't drink alcohol, etc. But otherwise, you can work, socialize, travel (all but the last couple of months), etc.<br /><br />In other words, the Unconscious Violinist thought experiment makes it sound like you're incapacitated for 9 months, but that part of the analogy doesn't hold.<br /><br />I also wonder if it makes any difference if the only way to cut off the unconscious violinist from your support is to violently kill the violinist so that he or she stops using your resources. It seems that would make an emotional difference to me. It's one thing to cut off life support that I'm providing and allow someone to die naturally. It's another to violently kill them (perhaps by dismembering) so that they stop using the life support I'm providing.<br /><br />Does it make a difference if the unconscious violinist is young, with an entire lifetime ahead? Not sure about that one, but we seem to react differently to the untimely death of a child vs. an adult.Alexnoreply@blogger.com