To add on to this, I think the view you’re referring to is presentism combined with the deprivationism view on death: presentism = only presently alive people matter + deprivationism = the badness of death is the ammount of happiness the person would have had.
You could be, say, a presentist (or other person-affecting view) and combined with say, Epicureanism about death. That would hold only presently alive people matter and there’s no badness in death, and hence no value in extending lives.
If that were your view you’d focus on the suffering of presently humans instead. Probably mental illness or chronic pain. Maybe social isolation if you had a really neat intervention.
But yeah, you’re right that person-affecting views doesn’t capture the intuitive badnes of animal suffering. You could still be a presentist and v*gan on environmental grounds.
And I agree that presentism + deprivationism suggests trying to cure aging is very important and, depending on details, could have higher EV than suffering relief. I’m unclear that real wealth creation would do very much due to hedonic adaptation and social comparison challenges.
To add on to this, I think the view you’re referring to is presentism combined with the deprivationism view on death: presentism = only presently alive people matter + deprivationism = the badness of death is the ammount of happiness the person would have had.
You could be, say, a presentist (or other person-affecting view) and combined with say, Epicureanism about death. That would hold only presently alive people matter and there’s no badness in death, and hence no value in extending lives.
If that were your view you’d focus on the suffering of presently humans instead. Probably mental illness or chronic pain. Maybe social isolation if you had a really neat intervention.
But yeah, you’re right that person-affecting views doesn’t capture the intuitive badnes of animal suffering. You could still be a presentist and v*gan on environmental grounds.
And I agree that presentism + deprivationism suggests trying to cure aging is very important and, depending on details, could have higher EV than suffering relief. I’m unclear that real wealth creation would do very much due to hedonic adaptation and social comparison challenges.