TL;DR: I think donations to SWP may be in the conversation for the single most cost-effective opportunity available to humanity.
Just saw this comment by chance when doing some of my usual late-night reading about shrimp welfare, and thought I’d reply because somebody mentioned me on the internet!
I’ve thought about this specific question (weightings between the different pain categories) at length, and there’s quite a bit of uncertainty as with any esoteric area of philosophy. I don’t put that much weight on my own experience that Michael described (as these decisions are too important to rely on my own experiences). I know a few people are thinking about this, so I’ve seen what various people have written about this; a small amount of academic research; some informal surveys; and a fair amount of philosophy. I think that any discussion of this topic needs to acknowledge this uncertainty. I think in a couple of years, we’ll be in a much more informed position about the trade-offs between pain categories, perhaps with the exception of excruciating pain.
I’ve also given shrimp welfare and shrimp stunning some detailed thought (and my colleagues will know just how critical and conservative I am when conducting research!).
That said:
I agree that 6.67x (disabling:hurtful) and 5x (excruciating:disabling) are conservative.
In my work, I use many sets of weightings, and I assign a rough probability to each one. The weighted mean is quite close to those above numbers. But averages obscure, which is why I use a set of weightings to arrive at a more informed judgement about any particular decision.
I think there’s a >30% chance that disabling:hurtful is above 15x (rather than 6.67x) and that excruciating:disabling is above 100x (rather than 5x). I also think the idea that excruciating is infinitely worse should be taken seriously.
Overall, given this thinking as well as my own detailed research into various aspects of the animal advocacy movement, I think donations to SWP may be in the conversation for the single most cost-effective opportunity available to humanity today, possibly ever (subject to usual moral uncertainty stuff around the big worldview questions, of course). Some healthy uncertainty around the pain weightings doesn’t change that.
Also, might be worth saying that if anybody strongly disagrees with this claim, I’d be keen to collaborate on a cost-effectiveness analysis of SWP and some other highly cost-effective opportunity (especially outside of the animal space) to see where the cruxes are.
TL;DR: I think donations to SWP may be in the conversation for the single most cost-effective opportunity available to humanity.
Just saw this comment by chance when doing some of my usual late-night reading about shrimp welfare, and thought I’d reply because somebody mentioned me on the internet!
I’ve thought about this specific question (weightings between the different pain categories) at length, and there’s quite a bit of uncertainty as with any esoteric area of philosophy. I don’t put that much weight on my own experience that Michael described (as these decisions are too important to rely on my own experiences). I know a few people are thinking about this, so I’ve seen what various people have written about this; a small amount of academic research; some informal surveys; and a fair amount of philosophy. I think that any discussion of this topic needs to acknowledge this uncertainty. I think in a couple of years, we’ll be in a much more informed position about the trade-offs between pain categories, perhaps with the exception of excruciating pain.
I’ve also given shrimp welfare and shrimp stunning some detailed thought (and my colleagues will know just how critical and conservative I am when conducting research!).
That said:
I agree that 6.67x (disabling:hurtful) and 5x (excruciating:disabling) are conservative.
In my work, I use many sets of weightings, and I assign a rough probability to each one. The weighted mean is quite close to those above numbers. But averages obscure, which is why I use a set of weightings to arrive at a more informed judgement about any particular decision.
I think there’s a >30% chance that disabling:hurtful is above 15x (rather than 6.67x) and that excruciating:disabling is above 100x (rather than 5x). I also think the idea that excruciating is infinitely worse should be taken seriously.
Overall, given this thinking as well as my own detailed research into various aspects of the animal advocacy movement, I think donations to SWP may be in the conversation for the single most cost-effective opportunity available to humanity today, possibly ever (subject to usual moral uncertainty stuff around the big worldview questions, of course). Some healthy uncertainty around the pain weightings doesn’t change that.
Also, might be worth saying that if anybody strongly disagrees with this claim, I’d be keen to collaborate on a cost-effectiveness analysis of SWP and some other highly cost-effective opportunity (especially outside of the animal space) to see where the cruxes are.