...So with sadness in my heart,
Feels the best thing I could do
Is end it all and leave forever~
What's done is done, it feels so bad,
What once was happy now is sad,
I'll never love again, my world is ending~
(I WARNED YOU ABOUT THE INSTRUMENTALITY, AKON! I TOLD YOU BAKA!)
Superhappies:If you wish once more for the existence of others, the barriers of the heart will separate everyone once more... And the fear of other people will begin again.
Akon:That's all right... Thank you.
Akon:I felt that there were only hateful things on Earth. So I'm sure it was okay to fly away. But there was nothing good in the system I ran to, either. After all, I didn't exist there... which is the same as no one existing.
Supperhappies:Is it okay for brains and emotions to hurt you and others once more?
Akon:I don't mind. Sooner or later I'll be betrayed by my crew... And they'll leave me. Still... I want to meet them again, because I believe my feelings at that time were real.
The "Normal Ending" seems to have two problems. One is literary: the prominently displayed Chekhov's gun never fired, and one is utilitarian: lack of choice, which strictly reduces the overall utility by removing even harmless options. Having no acceptable choices is what drives people to desperate actions, like suicide, and the immediate mandatory crunchy happiness without an outlet seems like a novice mistake for a utilitarian, something SHs would certainly recognize and avoid.
Another literary point: the prediction markets, a major part of the story, are not even mentioned in this ending, making me believe that Eliezer never intended to give the Normal Ending his full attention. Then again, some wildly successful books, like the Twilight series, unir nyy gur ohvyq-hc sbe gur svany onggyr jvgubhg bar rire unccravat.
Having no acceptable choices is what drives people to desperate actions, like suicide, and the immediate mandatory crunchy happiness without an outlet seems like a novice mistake for a utilitarian, something SHs would certainly recognize and avoid.
Having no acceptable choices drives humans to suicide. It's already been shown that SHs aren't perfect at predicting human psychology, and they may not have seen that.
Today's post, Normal Ending: Last Tears (6/8) was originally published on 04 February 2009. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
Humanity accepts the Superhappies' bargain.
Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments to the original post).
This post is part of the Rerunning the Sequences series, where we'll be going through Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts in order so that people who are interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was Three Worlds Decide (5/8), and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it here, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, or summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki. Go here for more details, or to have meta discussions about the Rerunning the Sequences series.
