Comic #4121: consequentialism

Description

Here is the transcription of the comic text:

Panel 1: Person 1: "Ethics should always be consequentialist. We need to consider not just our actions, but their potential results."

Person 2: "Maybe, but the problem is that you can't predict the future, especially in the very long term."

Panel 2: Person 1: "So your ethical system is basically 'Do what will probably be good in the short term, and to hell with whatever comes later.'"

Person 2: "Yeah, but it's okay because science keeps improving our ability to predict. So, the 'short term' we can predict gets longer and longer until it encompasses the rest of the future."

Panel 3: Person 1: "That just creates a new problem: if you can predict the future perfectly, there is no ethics because everything is pre-determined."

Panel 4: Person 2: "Your ethical framework only works if you believe humans will always be smarter than, say, cows but pretty much idiots on a cosmic scale."

Panel 5: Person 1: "Which… actually… huh."

Panel 6: Person 2: "This is the best of all possible worlds!"