I wondered about this today, googled it, and should not be surprised that Scott Alexander thought about it years ago:)
A couple of thoughts, very late to this discussion.
First, perhaps human consciousness is highly individuated, so each human counts for one, when we’re reasoning anthropically. But if there are hive-minds, then maybe thousands of ants count for only one. Perhaps even Norway rats are similar enough to each other that, though they’re not a hive mind, they have less anthropic weighting. Perhaps the proper reference class is types of consciousness, and the more individuated a consciousness is, the more it is its own type, so the more anthropic weighting it receives.
I wondered about this today, googled it, and should not be surprised that Scott Alexander thought about it years ago:)
A couple of thoughts, very late to this discussion.
First, perhaps human consciousness is highly individuated, so each human counts for one, when we’re reasoning anthropically. But if there are hive-minds, then maybe thousands of ants count for only one. Perhaps even Norway rats are similar enough to each other that, though they’re not a hive mind, they have less anthropic weighting. Perhaps the proper reference class is types of consciousness, and the more individuated a consciousness is, the more it is its own type, so the more anthropic weighting it receives.
The individual rat is... (read more)