Part of the definition of astronomical suffering is that it’s greater than any instances of suffering to date. But factory farming was unprecedented compared to anything before it, so I think the definition of s-risk could be applied retroactively to it.
I wouldn’t consider factory farming to be an instance of astronomical suffering, as bad as the practice is, since I don’t think the suffering from one century of factory farming exceeds hundreds of millions of years of wild animal suffering. However, perhaps it could be an s-risk if factory farming somehow continues for a billion years. For reference, here is definition of s-risk from a talk by CLR in 2017:
“S-risk – One where an adverse outcome would bring about severe suffering on a cosmic scale, vastly exceeding all suffering that has existed on Earth so far.”
Part of the definition of astronomical suffering is that it’s greater than any instances of suffering to date. But factory farming was unprecedented compared to anything before it, so I think the definition of s-risk could be applied retroactively to it.
I wouldn’t consider factory farming to be an instance of astronomical suffering, as bad as the practice is, since I don’t think the suffering from one century of factory farming exceeds hundreds of millions of years of wild animal suffering. However, perhaps it could be an s-risk if factory farming somehow continues for a billion years. For reference, here is definition of s-risk from a talk by CLR in 2017: