Thanks for all this, Michael. Lots to say here, but I think the key point is that we don’t place much weight on these particular numbers and, as you well know and have capably demonstrated, we could get different numbers (and ordinal rankings) with various small changes to the methodology. The main point to keep in mind (which I say not for your sake, but for others, as I know you realize this) is that we’d probably get even smaller differences between welfare ranges with many of those changes. One of the main reasons we get large differences between humans and many invertebrates is because of the sheer number of proxies and the focus on cognitive proxies. There’s an argument to be given for that move, but it doesn’t matter here. The point is just that if we were to focus on the hedonic proxies you mention, there would be smaller differences—and it would be more plausible that those would be narrowed further by further research.
If I had more time, I would love to build even more models to aggregate various sets of proxies. But only so many hours in the day!
Thanks for all this, Michael. Lots to say here, but I think the key point is that we don’t place much weight on these particular numbers and, as you well know and have capably demonstrated, we could get different numbers (and ordinal rankings) with various small changes to the methodology. The main point to keep in mind (which I say not for your sake, but for others, as I know you realize this) is that we’d probably get even smaller differences between welfare ranges with many of those changes. One of the main reasons we get large differences between humans and many invertebrates is because of the sheer number of proxies and the focus on cognitive proxies. There’s an argument to be given for that move, but it doesn’t matter here. The point is just that if we were to focus on the hedonic proxies you mention, there would be smaller differences—and it would be more plausible that those would be narrowed further by further research.
If I had more time, I would love to build even more models to aggregate various sets of proxies. But only so many hours in the day!