Thanks for the comments. I actually agree that it’s neither novel nor thorough. It was written not as a research piece but to fill a (perceived) gap in the recorded EA conversation on this. I think we have cases where thinking outstrips accessible accounts of the output, and we need to make sure that there’s a good route into these things for people coming at it anew.
I didn’t want to spend too long looking at the ways that animal interventions today could help future animals, although I agree that this is an important route to impact (which I did flag: “Moreover, if it could achieve a lasting improvement in societal values, it might have a large benefit in improved animal welfare over the long-term.”)
I guess overall the tone of the piece is not quite right for you—which makes sense as you’re a little too informed to be the target audience. The takeaway is supposed to be that the routes to impacting the far future are by impacting humans today. I’m not trying to draw any conclusions about the nature of those interventions (although I use human welfare interventions as an easy-to-grok example and because their long-term effects have been discussed elsewhere).
Thanks for the comments. I actually agree that it’s neither novel nor thorough. It was written not as a research piece but to fill a (perceived) gap in the recorded EA conversation on this. I think we have cases where thinking outstrips accessible accounts of the output, and we need to make sure that there’s a good route into these things for people coming at it anew.
I didn’t want to spend too long looking at the ways that animal interventions today could help future animals, although I agree that this is an important route to impact (which I did flag: “Moreover, if it could achieve a lasting improvement in societal values, it might have a large benefit in improved animal welfare over the long-term.”)
I guess overall the tone of the piece is not quite right for you—which makes sense as you’re a little too informed to be the target audience. The takeaway is supposed to be that the routes to impacting the far future are by impacting humans today. I’m not trying to draw any conclusions about the nature of those interventions (although I use human welfare interventions as an easy-to-grok example and because their long-term effects have been discussed elsewhere).