I’m really interested in how we measure moral value across species. I think standardizing a global animal sentience scale and including this kind of data in the w-vector is essential for fair AI alignment. Very exciting also that giving sentient animals moral weight in ethical decisions will lead to policy impact—affecting farming practices, AI-driven environmental policy and synthetic meat decisions.
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment and deep engagement with my work! I’m thrilled this topic resonates with you—especially the idea of moral weight for future sentient beings. It’s truly a pivotal challenge.
I agree completely: standardizing a sentience scale (for animals, AI, even hypothetical species) is foundational for a fair w-vector. As you rightly noted, this will radically reshape eco-policy, agritech, and AI ethics.
This directly ties into navigating uncertainty (which you highlighted!), where I argue for balancing two imperatives:
Moral conservatism: Upholding non-negotiable safeguards (e.g., preventing extreme suffering),
Progressive expansion: Carefully extending moral circles amid incomplete data.
Where do you see the threshold? For instance:
Should we require 90% confidence in octopus sentience before banning live-boiling?
Or act on a presumption of sentience for such beings?
I first went to go read your previous post “How the Human Psychological ‘Program’ Undermines AI Alignment” and this is all super interesting! The possibility of future sentient beings is mind-blowing!
I’m really interested in how we measure moral value across species. I think standardizing a global animal sentience scale and including this kind of data in the w-vector is essential for fair AI alignment. Very exciting also that giving sentient animals moral weight in ethical decisions will lead to policy impact—affecting farming practices, AI-driven environmental policy and synthetic meat decisions.
Thank you for such a thoughtful comment and deep engagement with my work! I’m thrilled this topic resonates with you—especially the idea of moral weight for future sentient beings. It’s truly a pivotal challenge.
I agree completely: standardizing a sentience scale (for animals, AI, even hypothetical species) is foundational for a fair w-vector. As you rightly noted, this will radically reshape eco-policy, agritech, and AI ethics.
This directly ties into navigating uncertainty (which you highlighted!), where I argue for balancing two imperatives:
Moral conservatism: Upholding non-negotiable safeguards (e.g., preventing extreme suffering),
Progressive expansion: Carefully extending moral circles amid incomplete data.
Where do you see the threshold? For instance:
Should we require 90% confidence in octopus sentience before banning live-boiling?
Or act on a presumption of sentience for such beings?