The slow (if not revese) progress towards a world without intense suffering is depressing, to say the least. So thank you for writing this inspiring piece.
It aslo reminded me of David Pearce’s essay “High-tech Jainism”. It outlines a path towards civilization that abolished suffering while also warns about potential pitfalls like forgetting about suffering too soon, before it’s prevented for all sentient beings. (In Suffering-Focused Ethics: Defense and Implications (ch. 13) mentioned in the post, Vinding even argues that, given the irreducible uncertainty about suffering re-emerging in the future, there’s always risk in disconnecting from suffering completely.)
I’d definitely like to write more on the concept since I truly believe it could be useful, at the very least as a source of hope. It’s all too easy to feel depressed diving into the viewpoint of suffering-focused ethics, but that probably slows motivation that would be more effective otherwise. The possibility of forgetting suffering to soon is a good point to remember, I’ll take a look at the essay linked. Thanks for the response!
The slow (if not revese) progress towards a world without intense suffering is depressing, to say the least. So thank you for writing this inspiring piece.
It aslo reminded me of David Pearce’s essay “High-tech Jainism”. It outlines a path towards civilization that abolished suffering while also warns about potential pitfalls like forgetting about suffering too soon, before it’s prevented for all sentient beings. (In Suffering-Focused Ethics: Defense and Implications (ch. 13) mentioned in the post, Vinding even argues that, given the irreducible uncertainty about suffering re-emerging in the future, there’s always risk in disconnecting from suffering completely.)
I’d definitely like to write more on the concept since I truly believe it could be useful, at the very least as a source of hope. It’s all too easy to feel depressed diving into the viewpoint of suffering-focused ethics, but that probably slows motivation that would be more effective otherwise. The possibility of forgetting suffering to soon is a good point to remember, I’ll take a look at the essay linked. Thanks for the response!