I agree with you that those concerns will dominate the value of adding near-term future people. However, I think that even when those concerns are accounted for, adding near-term future people remains a good thing, as argued here.
Is there a specific part of that article you’re referring to? It mostly seems to be saying there isn’t a particularly strong case for near-term population growth.
In terms of animals, they state:
The negative effects of animal consumption alone may arguably make the net effect of additional human lives negative. However, animal consumption most likely will only continue for a couple of centuries, while the benefits of population growth that we consider would purportedly last much longer.
But this doesn’t seem to be addressing the marginal impact of additional near-term future people on animals. I don’t think they’ve tried to estimate that. They simply seem to be dismissing it as relatively unimportant beyond the next few centuries.
That’s right, and after reading about the impact of marginal people on animal suffering some more, I’m now much more unsure that adding near-term people is a good thing, purely because of the domination of animal suffering concerns. I retract my previous comment. Thanks for the update!
I agree with you that those concerns will dominate the value of adding near-term future people. However, I think that even when those concerns are accounted for, adding near-term future people remains a good thing, as argued here.
Is there a specific part of that article you’re referring to? It mostly seems to be saying there isn’t a particularly strong case for near-term population growth.
In terms of animals, they state:
But this doesn’t seem to be addressing the marginal impact of additional near-term future people on animals. I don’t think they’ve tried to estimate that. They simply seem to be dismissing it as relatively unimportant beyond the next few centuries.
That’s right, and after reading about the impact of marginal people on animal suffering some more, I’m now much more unsure that adding near-term people is a good thing, purely because of the domination of animal suffering concerns. I retract my previous comment. Thanks for the update!