I can’t find a better place to ask this, but I was wondering whether/​where there is a good explanation of the scepticism of leading rationalists about animal consciousness/​moral patienthood. I am thinking in particular of Zvi and Yudkowsky. In the recent podcast with Zvi Mowshowitz on 80K, the question came up a bit, and I know he is also very sceptical of interventions for non-human animals on his blog, but I had a hard time finding a clear explanation of where this belief comes from.
I really like Zvi’s work, and he has been right about a lot of things I was initially on the other side of, so I would be curious to read more of his or similar people’s thoughts on this.
Seems like potentially a place where there is a motivation gap: non-animal welfare people have little incentive to convince me that they think the things I work on are not that useful.
Perhaps the large uncertainty around it makes it less likely that people will argue against it publicly as well. I would imagine many people might think with very low confidence that some interventions for non-human animals might not be the most cost-effective, but stay relatively quiet due to that uncertainty.
I can’t find a better place to ask this, but I was wondering whether/​where there is a good explanation of the scepticism of leading rationalists about animal consciousness/​moral patienthood. I am thinking in particular of Zvi and Yudkowsky. In the recent podcast with Zvi Mowshowitz on 80K, the question came up a bit, and I know he is also very sceptical of interventions for non-human animals on his blog, but I had a hard time finding a clear explanation of where this belief comes from.
I really like Zvi’s work, and he has been right about a lot of things I was initially on the other side of, so I would be curious to read more of his or similar people’s thoughts on this.
Seems like potentially a place where there is a motivation gap: non-animal welfare people have little incentive to convince me that they think the things I work on are not that useful.
Yudkowsky’s views are discussed here:
https://​​rationalconspiracy.com/​​2015/​​12/​​16/​​a-debate-on-animal-consciousness/​​
https://​​www.lesswrong.com/​​posts/​​KFbGbTEtHiJnXw5sk/​​i-really-don-t-understand-eliezer-yudkowsky-s-position-on
This was very helpful, thank you!
Perhaps the large uncertainty around it makes it less likely that people will argue against it publicly as well. I would imagine many people might think with very low confidence that some interventions for non-human animals might not be the most cost-effective, but stay relatively quiet due to that uncertainty.