After the post above, I recommended research informing how to increase the welfare of soil animals (for example, my top recommendation quoted above) over pursuing whatever land use change interventions naively seem to achieve that the most cost-effectively. I have little idea about whether funding HIPF (as recommended in the 1st sentence quoted above), or any other way of changing land use increases or decreases welfare. I am very uncertain about what increases or decreases soil-animal-years, and whether soil animals have positive or negative lives.
I currently recommend decreasing the uncertainty about how the (expectedhedonistic) welfare per unit time of different organisms and digital systems compares with that of humans. I am now more pessimistic about research informing how to increase the welfare of soil animals. I have very little idea about whether existing interventions which robustly increase the welfare of humans or non-soil animals increase or decrease animal welfare due to potentially dominant uncertain effects on soil animals. Likewise, I do not know whether hypothetical interventions which robustly increased the welfare of soil animals would increase or decrease welfare due to potentially dominant uncertain effects on soil microorganisms.
After the post above, I recommended research informing how to increase the welfare of soil animals (for example, my top recommendation quoted above) over pursuing whatever land use change interventions naively seem to achieve that the most cost-effectively. I have little idea about whether funding HIPF (as recommended in the 1st sentence quoted above), or any other way of changing land use increases or decreases welfare. I am very uncertain about what increases or decreases soil-animal-years, and whether soil animals have positive or negative lives.
I currently recommend decreasing the uncertainty about how the (expected hedonistic) welfare per unit time of different organisms and digital systems compares with that of humans. I am now more pessimistic about research informing how to increase the welfare of soil animals. I have very little idea about whether existing interventions which robustly increase the welfare of humans or non-soil animals increase or decrease animal welfare due to potentially dominant uncertain effects on soil animals. Likewise, I do not know whether hypothetical interventions which robustly increased the welfare of soil animals would increase or decrease welfare due to potentially dominant uncertain effects on soil microorganisms.