There are some forms of agreements you can make with animals and there are some forms you cannot. I don’t see why they can’t intentionally coordinate based on understanding of our choices. A cow or a crow might move closer to someone giving them food and act kindly towards them later on, but they will refuse to move closer and cooperate if they realise that person has a history of deception.
There are also possible worlds in which animals’ intelligence can be enhanced even further. It could even happen during our lifetimes given a technology explosion. In those possible worlds animals will be able to meet any threshold you want them to pass.
I really struggle to see a consistent way to be respectful towards people in coma or babies without also respecting the animals. You need a very specific argument on why both of these are true:
Being uncooperative to animals is fine even though they might become agents(according to your threshold) with some additional technology.
Being uncooperative to babies is not fine because many of them will become agents in future.
I believe the only consistent way to disregard animal interests is to deny that animals have interests at all as Yudkowsky does. As long as animals have interests it’s very difficult to explain why screwing them over won’t send a signal of “I might screw over others if I can get away with it”.
There are some forms of agreements you can make with animals and there are some forms you cannot. I don’t see why they can’t intentionally coordinate based on understanding of our choices. A cow or a crow might move closer to someone giving them food and act kindly towards them later on, but they will refuse to move closer and cooperate if they realise that person has a history of deception.
There are also possible worlds in which animals’ intelligence can be enhanced even further. It could even happen during our lifetimes given a technology explosion. In those possible worlds animals will be able to meet any threshold you want them to pass.
I really struggle to see a consistent way to be respectful towards people in coma or babies without also respecting the animals. You need a very specific argument on why both of these are true:
Being uncooperative to animals is fine even though they might become agents(according to your threshold) with some additional technology.
Being uncooperative to babies is not fine because many of them will become agents in future.
I believe the only consistent way to disregard animal interests is to deny that animals have interests at all as Yudkowsky does. As long as animals have interests it’s very difficult to explain why screwing them over won’t send a signal of “I might screw over others if I can get away with it”.