Hey everyone, I’m curious about the extent to which people in EA take (weak/strong) antinatalism/ negative utilitarianism seriously. I’ve read a bit around the topic and find some arguments more persuasive than others, but the idea that many lives are net-negative, and that even good lives might be worse than we think they are, has stuck with me.
Based on my own mood diary, I’m leaning towards something around a 5.5/10 on a happiness scale being the neutral point, under which a life isn’t worth living.
This has made me a lot less enthusiastic about ‘saving lives’ for its own sake, especially those lives in countries/ regions with very poor quality of life. So I suspect that some ‘life-saving’ charities could be actively harmful and that we should focus way more on ‘life-improving’ charities/ cause areas. (There are probably very few charities that only save lives- preventing malaria/ reducing lead exposure both improves and saves lives- but we can imagine a ‘pure-play life-saving charity’.)
I haven’t come to any conclusions here, but the ‘cost to save a life’ framing, still common in EA, strikes me as probably morally invalid. I don’t hear this argument mentioned much (you don’t seem to get anyone actively arguing against ‘saving lives’), so I’m just curious what the range of EA opinion is.
Regarding the question of the population ethics of donating to Givewell charities, a 2014 report commissioned by Givewell suggested that donating to AMF wouldn’t have a big impact on total population, because fertility decisions are related to infant mortality. Givewell also wrote a lengthy blog post about their work in the context of population ethics. I think the gist of it is that even if you don’t agree with Givewell’s stance on population ethics, you can still make use of their work because they provide a spreadsheet where one can plug in one’s own moral weights.
Hey everyone, I’m curious about the extent to which people in EA take (weak/strong) antinatalism/ negative utilitarianism seriously. I’ve read a bit around the topic and find some arguments more persuasive than others, but the idea that many lives are net-negative, and that even good lives might be worse than we think they are, has stuck with me.
Based on my own mood diary, I’m leaning towards something around a 5.5/10 on a happiness scale being the neutral point, under which a life isn’t worth living.
This has made me a lot less enthusiastic about ‘saving lives’ for its own sake, especially those lives in countries/ regions with very poor quality of life. So I suspect that some ‘life-saving’ charities could be actively harmful and that we should focus way more on ‘life-improving’ charities/ cause areas. (There are probably very few charities that only save lives- preventing malaria/ reducing lead exposure both improves and saves lives- but we can imagine a ‘pure-play life-saving charity’.)
I haven’t come to any conclusions here, but the ‘cost to save a life’ framing, still common in EA, strikes me as probably morally invalid. I don’t hear this argument mentioned much (you don’t seem to get anyone actively arguing against ‘saving lives’), so I’m just curious what the range of EA opinion is.
You might be interested in:
https://www.preventsuffering.org
https://centerforreducingsuffering.org
Historically also https://longtermrisk.org
Regarding the question of the population ethics of donating to Givewell charities, a 2014 report commissioned by Givewell suggested that donating to AMF wouldn’t have a big impact on total population, because fertility decisions are related to infant mortality. Givewell also wrote a lengthy blog post about their work in the context of population ethics. I think the gist of it is that even if you don’t agree with Givewell’s stance on population ethics, you can still make use of their work because they provide a spreadsheet where one can plug in one’s own moral weights.