Utility monster

A Utility monster is a hypothetical entity used by philosopher Robert Nozick in an argument against Utilitarianism. A utility monster is a highly efficient consumer of resources: it gains enormous amount of pleasure (or, in economic terms, utility) from very small quantities of a particular resource. So for example, it may get 1000 times more pleasure out of drinking a sip of wine than a wine lover may get if let loose in a fine winery. As cardinal utilitarianism suggests that we allocate goods and resources so that we maximise the total or average amount of pleasure, given the existence of a utility monster we would be obliged to neglect the needs of human beings in favour of satisfying the monster, perhaps even to the extent of annihilating the human race.