While I certainly like that argument/thought experiment, I think it’s very difficult to imagine the subjective experience of an (arguably) lower degree of consciousness. Depending on what animal’s living conditions we’re talking about, I’d arguably take 1/10th even assuming human level consciousness (so basically *me* living in a factory farm for 36.5 days to gain one additional year of life as a human), but have naturally a hard time judging what a reasonable value for chicken level consciousness would be.
Also, this framing likely brings a few biases into the mix and reframing it slightly could probably greatly change how people answer. E.g. if you had the choice to die today or live for another 50 years but every year would start with a month experienced as a pig in factory farming conditions, I’d most certainly pick the latter option.
While I certainly like that argument/thought experiment, I think it’s very difficult to imagine the subjective experience of an (arguably) lower degree of consciousness. Depending on what animal’s living conditions we’re talking about, I’d arguably take 1/10th even assuming human level consciousness (so basically *me* living in a factory farm for 36.5 days to gain one additional year of life as a human), but have naturally a hard time judging what a reasonable value for chicken level consciousness would be.
Also, this framing likely brings a few biases into the mix and reframing it slightly could probably greatly change how people answer. E.g. if you had the choice to die today or live for another 50 years but every year would start with a month experienced as a pig in factory farming conditions, I’d most certainly pick the latter option.
Interesting—I would definitely not pick the 50 months as a pig on a factory farm.
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