It’s fantastic to see the products from Electric Sheep Fellowship. This is a thought provoking piece as so often as animal advocates I think we tend to see the potential harm and suffering. It’s good to have a reminder to look to the potential opportunities also.
I appreciated your integration of moral circle expansion with economic shifts, it’s a vital systems perspective often overlooked in animal advocacy. How can we ensure AI economic tools prioritise moral expansion over commodification?
I also appreciated the expanse of reflection from farmed animals to companion animals to wild living animals to animal products and more…
Thanks for writing this and sharing your optimism!
Thanks for reading, Karen! The challenge you’ve mentioned—ensuring economic tools are used in service of moral circle expansion rather than commodification—is a major one. Human history, in this regard, lends itself more easily to pessimism than optimism. I don’t have any easy answers and I’d certainly need more time to think about it but my initial thought is that it seems there are two major steps we could consider here. Firstly, we need increased transparency in animal exploitation industries. And secondly, we need engagement in/facilitation of animal abuse to be seen as more of a black mark against a company than it currently is. If all goes well, AI could potentially help us act in service of these goals.
It’s fantastic to see the products from Electric Sheep Fellowship. This is a thought provoking piece as so often as animal advocates I think we tend to see the potential harm and suffering. It’s good to have a reminder to look to the potential opportunities also.
I appreciated your integration of moral circle expansion with economic shifts, it’s a vital systems perspective often overlooked in animal advocacy. How can we ensure AI economic tools prioritise moral expansion over commodification?
I also appreciated the expanse of reflection from farmed animals to companion animals to wild living animals to animal products and more…
Thanks for writing this and sharing your optimism!
Thanks for reading, Karen! The challenge you’ve mentioned—ensuring economic tools are used in service of moral circle expansion rather than commodification—is a major one. Human history, in this regard, lends itself more easily to pessimism than optimism. I don’t have any easy answers and I’d certainly need more time to think about it but my initial thought is that it seems there are two major steps we could consider here. Firstly, we need increased transparency in animal exploitation industries. And secondly, we need engagement in/facilitation of animal abuse to be seen as more of a black mark against a company than it currently is. If all goes well, AI could potentially help us act in service of these goals.