The difficulty I have with this argument is where do you draw the line with sentience? And if there’s a living thing just below the line, without “real feelings” or interests, but still able to experience pain or other feelings would you not treasure it?
One issue with my post I realise is that maybe by definition you need a sentient being to feel real empathy with, but what I had in mind wasn’t strictly just empathy, but caring for or treasuring things.
In a sense it’s more of an invitation for a thought experiment to extend our circle of concern regardless of utility. So to answer your question, it’s treasuring / appreciating / valuing / finding delight in anything really, just for the mere fact that it came together from cosmic dust. So even if something doesn’t have utility for a sentient being, favouring not destroying or harming them.
That being said, of course I’m not saying we should care more about a tuft of grass over a goat for example (and prevent the goat from eating the grass out of concern for the grass’s wellbeing) or to put more effort into preserving minerals than farm animal welfare, etc. Instead, as a concrete example, to consider the effects of our (over)consumption in increasing entropy and decreasing natural beauty, even if mining a bare hill without vegetation doesn’t impact anything living.
The difficulty I have with this argument is where do you draw the line with sentience? And if there’s a living thing just below the line, without “real feelings” or interests, but still able to experience pain or other feelings would you not treasure it?
One issue with my post I realise is that maybe by definition you need a sentient being to feel real empathy with, but what I had in mind wasn’t strictly just empathy, but caring for or treasuring things.
In a sense it’s more of an invitation for a thought experiment to extend our circle of concern regardless of utility. So to answer your question, it’s treasuring / appreciating / valuing / finding delight in anything really, just for the mere fact that it came together from cosmic dust. So even if something doesn’t have utility for a sentient being, favouring not destroying or harming them.
That being said, of course I’m not saying we should care more about a tuft of grass over a goat for example (and prevent the goat from eating the grass out of concern for the grass’s wellbeing) or to put more effort into preserving minerals than farm animal welfare, etc. Instead, as a concrete example, to consider the effects of our (over)consumption in increasing entropy and decreasing natural beauty, even if mining a bare hill without vegetation doesn’t impact anything living.