I agree the notion that wild animals suffer is primarily an EA notion and considered weird by most other people, but I think most people think itâs weird to even examine the question at all, rather than most people thinking wild animals have overall joyful lives, so I donât think this is evidence that EAs are wrong about the bottom line. (Itâs mild evidence that EAs are wrong to consider the issue, but I just feel like the argument for the inside view is quite strong, and peopleâs reasons for being different seem quite transparently bad.)
I reject the âdepressionâ characterisation, because I donât think my life is overall unpleasant. Itâs just that I think the goodness of my life rests significantly on a lot of things that I have that most animals donât, mainly reliable access to food, shelter, and sleep, and protection from physical harm. I would be happy to live in a world where most sentient beings had a life like mine, but I donât.
I agree the notion that wild animals suffer is primarily an EA notion and considered weird by most other people, but I think most people think itâs weird to even examine the question at all, rather than most people thinking wild animals have overall joyful lives, so I donât think this is evidence that EAs are wrong about the bottom line. (Itâs mild evidence that EAs are wrong to consider the issue, but I just feel like the argument for the inside view is quite strong, and peopleâs reasons for being different seem quite transparently bad.)
I reject the âdepressionâ characterisation, because I donât think my life is overall unpleasant. Itâs just that I think the goodness of my life rests significantly on a lot of things that I have that most animals donât, mainly reliable access to food, shelter, and sleep, and protection from physical harm. I would be happy to live in a world where most sentient beings had a life like mine, but I donât.
(Iâm not sure what to extrapolate about LLMs.)