Good points about fuel efficiency. I don’t think it’s likely that (post)humans will rely on factory farmed animals as a food source. However, there are other ways that space colonization or AI could cause a lot of suffering, such as spreading wild animals (which quite possibly have negative lives) via terraforming or running a lot of computer simulations containing suffering (see also: mindcrime). Since most people value nature and don’t see wildlife suffering as a problem, I’m not very optimistic that future humans, or for that matter an AI based on human values, will care about it. See this analysis by Michael Dickens.
(It seems like “existential risk” used to be a broader term, but now I always see it used as a synonym for human extinction risks.)
I agree with the “throwaway” comment. I’m not aware of anyone who expects factory farming of animals for meat to continue in a post-human future (except in ancestor simulations). The concerns are with other possible sources of suffering.
Good points about fuel efficiency. I don’t think it’s likely that (post)humans will rely on factory farmed animals as a food source. However, there are other ways that space colonization or AI could cause a lot of suffering, such as spreading wild animals (which quite possibly have negative lives) via terraforming or running a lot of computer simulations containing suffering (see also: mindcrime). Since most people value nature and don’t see wildlife suffering as a problem, I’m not very optimistic that future humans, or for that matter an AI based on human values, will care about it. See this analysis by Michael Dickens.
(It seems like “existential risk” used to be a broader term, but now I always see it used as a synonym for human extinction risks.)
I agree with the “throwaway” comment. I’m not aware of anyone who expects factory farming of animals for meat to continue in a post-human future (except in ancestor simulations). The concerns are with other possible sources of suffering.