Thanks for writing this, even accounting for suspicious convergence (which you were right to flag), it just seems really plausible that improving animal welfare now could turn out to be important from a longtermist perspective, and I’d be really excited to hear about more research in this field happening.
even accounting for suspicious convergence (which you were right to flag), it just seems really plausible that improving animal welfare now could turn out to be important from a longtermist perspective
Is this just something you already believed, or are you indicating that this post updated you a bit more towards believing this?
I initially assumed you meant the latter, which I found slightly surprising, though on reflection it seems reasonable.
Why I found it surprising: When I wrote the original version of this post in 2020, I was actually coming at it mainly from an angle of “Here’s an assumption which seems necessary for the standard longtermist case for working on farmed animals, but which is usually not highlighted or argued for explicitly, and which seems like it could easily be wrong.” So I guess I would’ve assumed it’d mostly cause people to update slightly away from believing that longtermist case for working on farmed animals. (But only slightly; this post mainly raises questions rather than strong critiques.)
But I guess it really depends on the reader: While some people are familiar with and at least somewhat bought into that longtermist case for working on farmed animals but have probably paid insufficient attention to the fact that Premise 4 might be wrong, some other people haven’t really encountered a clear description of that longtermist case, and some people mostly discuss longtermism as if it is necessarily about humans. So for some people, I think it’d make sense for this post to update them towards that longtermist case for working on farmed animals.
I already believed it and had actually been recently talking to someone about it, so I was surpsied and pleased to come across the post, but couldn’t find a phrasing which said this which didn’t just sound like I was saying “oh yeah thanks for writing up my idea”. Sorry for the confusion!
Thanks for writing this, even accounting for suspicious convergence (which you were right to flag), it just seems really plausible that improving animal welfare now could turn out to be important from a longtermist perspective, and I’d be really excited to hear about more research in this field happening.
Is this just something you already believed, or are you indicating that this post updated you a bit more towards believing this?
I initially assumed you meant the latter, which I found slightly surprising, though on reflection it seems reasonable.
Why I found it surprising: When I wrote the original version of this post in 2020, I was actually coming at it mainly from an angle of “Here’s an assumption which seems necessary for the standard longtermist case for working on farmed animals, but which is usually not highlighted or argued for explicitly, and which seems like it could easily be wrong.” So I guess I would’ve assumed it’d mostly cause people to update slightly away from believing that longtermist case for working on farmed animals. (But only slightly; this post mainly raises questions rather than strong critiques.)
But I guess it really depends on the reader: While some people are familiar with and at least somewhat bought into that longtermist case for working on farmed animals but have probably paid insufficient attention to the fact that Premise 4 might be wrong, some other people haven’t really encountered a clear description of that longtermist case, and some people mostly discuss longtermism as if it is necessarily about humans. So for some people, I think it’d make sense for this post to update them towards that longtermist case for working on farmed animals.
I already believed it and had actually been recently talking to someone about it, so I was surpsied and pleased to come across the post, but couldn’t find a phrasing which said this which didn’t just sound like I was saying “oh yeah thanks for writing up my idea”. Sorry for the confusion!