But of course, this leaves apart the hard (and intractable) issue of who is sentient and how much.
Without moral weights, perhaps we should try to maximize the amount of the minimum cost sentient beings (rats, flys?) at the expense of everybody else.
Humans are quite similar to each other, and we can talk and compare experiences.
It is easy to put similar moral weights to all people
and use the marginal decline of income utility to develop a nice theory for social democratic Utopia.
But nothing so convenient as self reported credible experience is available for the extension of the moral circle beyond humans.
But of course, this leaves apart the hard (and intractable) issue of who is sentient and how much.
Without moral weights, perhaps we should try to maximize the amount of the minimum cost sentient beings (rats, flys?) at the expense of everybody else.
Humans are quite similar to each other, and we can talk and compare experiences.
It is easy to put similar moral weights to all people and use the marginal decline of income utility to develop a nice theory for social democratic Utopia.
But nothing so convenient as self reported credible experience is available for the extension of the moral circle beyond humans.