I found this piece interesting, and it’s updated my views somewhat, though I also echo some of the counterpoints raised by Rob Wiblin, Linch, etc.
You wrote:
If my arguments are correct, animal welfare seems like an important missing piece in the discussion of longtermism — Stijn Bruers has explored similar ideas, and Denis Drescher has discussed making wild welfare interventions resilient in case of civilization collapse, but otherwise I don’t think I’ve seen other analysis of the importance of animal welfare from a longtermist perspective. The most relevant published research that is directly related to this topic is Simon Liedholm and Wild Animal Initiative’s work on intervention resilience.
I was surprised to see no mention of Sentience Institute or moral circle expansion in that passage or elsewhere in the post. Sentience Institute write:
Alongside many organizations in the effective altruism community, Sentience Institute holds a longtermist view, defined by the Global Priorities Institute as, “the view that the primary determinant of the differences in value of the actions we take today is the effect of those actions on the very long-term future.” This is because the number of sentient beings that could come into existence in the long-term future is astronomically large. This means the long-term future could be very good or very bad, such as s-risks, risks of astronomical future suffering.
[...]
SI currently focuses on expanding the moral circle to farmed animals, which we see as an important frontier of the modern moral circle and a tractable area of research. Successful farmed animal advocacy could have meaningful impacts on attitudes towards other sentient beings through a secondary transfer effect, or by otherwise generating momentum for further moral circle expansion.
(This isn’t meant as a major criticism. It’s obviously hard for any one post to cover everything, even within its intended scope.)
Ah—you’re totally right—that was an oversight. I’m working on a followup to this piece focusing more on what animal focused longtermism looks like, and talk about moral circle expansion, so I don’t know how I dropped it here :).
I found this piece interesting, and it’s updated my views somewhat, though I also echo some of the counterpoints raised by Rob Wiblin, Linch, etc.
You wrote:
I was surprised to see no mention of Sentience Institute or moral circle expansion in that passage or elsewhere in the post. Sentience Institute write:
(This isn’t meant as a major criticism. It’s obviously hard for any one post to cover everything, even within its intended scope.)
Ah—you’re totally right—that was an oversight. I’m working on a followup to this piece focusing more on what animal focused longtermism looks like, and talk about moral circle expansion, so I don’t know how I dropped it here :).