If one is only concerned w/ preventing needless suffering, prioritising the most extreme suffering, would donating to Rethink Priorities be a good investment for them, and if so, how so?
I think this depends on many factual beliefs you hold, including what groups of creatures count and what time period you are concerned about. Restricting ourselves to the present and assuming all plausibly sentient minds count (and ignoring extremes, say, less than 0.1% chance), I think farm and wild animals are plausibly candidates for enduring some of the worst suffering.
Specifically, I’d say it’s plausible some of the worst persistent current suffering is plausibly in farmed chickens and fish, and thus work to reduce the worst aspects of those is a decent bet to prevent extreme suffering. Similarly, wild animals likely experience the largest share of extreme suffering currently because of the sheer numbers and nature of life largely without interventions to prevent, say, the suffering of starvation, or extreme physical pain. For these reasons, work to improve conditions for wild animals plausibly could be a good investment.
Still restricted to the present, and outside the typical EA space altogether, I think it’s plausible much of the worst suffering in the world is committed during war crimes or torture under various authoritarian states. I do not know if there’s anything remotely tractable in this space or what good donation opportunities would be.
If you broaden consideration to include the future, a much wider set of creatures plausibly could experience extreme suffering including digital minds running at higher speeds, and/or with increased intensity of valenced experience beyond what’s currently possible in biological creatures. Here, what you think is the best bet would depend on many empirical beliefs again. I would say, only, that I’m excited about our longtermism work and think we’ll meaningfully contribute to creating the kind of future that decreases the risks of these types of outcomes.
Thanks for the questions!
I think this depends on many factual beliefs you hold, including what groups of creatures count and what time period you are concerned about. Restricting ourselves to the present and assuming all plausibly sentient minds count (and ignoring extremes, say, less than 0.1% chance), I think farm and wild animals are plausibly candidates for enduring some of the worst suffering.
Specifically, I’d say it’s plausible some of the worst persistent current suffering is plausibly in farmed chickens and fish, and thus work to reduce the worst aspects of those is a decent bet to prevent extreme suffering. Similarly, wild animals likely experience the largest share of extreme suffering currently because of the sheer numbers and nature of life largely without interventions to prevent, say, the suffering of starvation, or extreme physical pain. For these reasons, work to improve conditions for wild animals plausibly could be a good investment.
Still restricted to the present, and outside the typical EA space altogether, I think it’s plausible much of the worst suffering in the world is committed during war crimes or torture under various authoritarian states. I do not know if there’s anything remotely tractable in this space or what good donation opportunities would be.
If you broaden consideration to include the future, a much wider set of creatures plausibly could experience extreme suffering including digital minds running at higher speeds, and/or with increased intensity of valenced experience beyond what’s currently possible in biological creatures. Here, what you think is the best bet would depend on many empirical beliefs again. I would say, only, that I’m excited about our longtermism work and think we’ll meaningfully contribute to creating the kind of future that decreases the risks of these types of outcomes.