Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by whatamota 1609 days ago
Second order effects. If the past few decades have shown anything, its the second order effects that are much more important than any single effect.

What is the second order effect in this case? "Humans might be killed for organ harvesting. This leads to widespread uncertainty over who would be killed next. And uncertainty leads to other issues."

1 comments

Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance[0] is a fantastic tool for evaluating these things.

For the organ harvesting scenario, if you were behind the veil and had to choose what society you'd enter, would you choose to go to the one where a yearly physical might end up with you dead while you're parted out for others in the hospital—and also might mean you get your organ replacement lickety-split should you need one—or would you rather go to the one where this does not happen?

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_position