No I don’t agree that my claim implies that humans are infinitely more morally valuable than animals, rather they are significantly more valuable. I believe that we are currently allocating too much resources to animal welfare.
I don’t think it’s productive to think of hypothetical scenarios that are extremely far detached from reality like your paper cut scenario. Instead, I’m imagining a child in sub-saharan Africa going blind due to malnutrition or dying from malaria, and I’m having a hard time imagining prioritizing the welfare of any amount of chickens over that child. I acknowledge that the non-infinite number exists, maybe it’s 100,000 or 1,000,000 cage-free chickens in exchange for a human life. However, it seems clear to me that the magnitude of current human suffering deserves every marginal bit of resources it can receive at the cost of helping animals.
Historically, that number has been 30,000 to 400,000 cage-free chickens in exchange for a human life. (Using $5000 to save a life through the Against Malaria Foundation, compared to moving 9 to 120 years of hens’ lives per dollar to a cage-free environment, and a lifespan of 1.5 years per hen.)
So we are currently within the margin of error for the ballpark you quoted. Perhaps, given that you’re partial to humans over animals due to our shared species, that’s not enough for you to allocate the marginal $100m to animals. But maybe that shifts your degree of certainty that we should allocate it all to humans?
Thank you for showing me that calculation. Upon further thought, I think my belief is more along the lines of 10,000,000 to 500,000,000 chickens being equivalent to a single human life.
Based on suffering reduction alone, my opinion is that the weight of human suffering carries at least 10,000,000 times more weight than a chicken. When also considering the potential positive utility of a human, the decision to prioritize human welfare over animal welfare becomes even clearer to me. I hope our society reaches a point at which human suffering has been reduced to the point that we can focus on animal welfare, but I think we’re likely decades away.
I’d like to caveat this by saying I’m rather new to effective altruism, and I expect my views to evolve the more I learn. I’m curious to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying philosophical premises inherent in some of the views expressed here. However, debate week has definitely further solidified my view that we ought to allocate less resources to animal welfare.
No I don’t agree that my claim implies that humans are infinitely more morally valuable than animals, rather they are significantly more valuable. I believe that we are currently allocating too much resources to animal welfare.
I don’t think it’s productive to think of hypothetical scenarios that are extremely far detached from reality like your paper cut scenario. Instead, I’m imagining a child in sub-saharan Africa going blind due to malnutrition or dying from malaria, and I’m having a hard time imagining prioritizing the welfare of any amount of chickens over that child. I acknowledge that the non-infinite number exists, maybe it’s 100,000 or 1,000,000 cage-free chickens in exchange for a human life. However, it seems clear to me that the magnitude of current human suffering deserves every marginal bit of resources it can receive at the cost of helping animals.
Historically, that number has been 30,000 to 400,000 cage-free chickens in exchange for a human life. (Using $5000 to save a life through the Against Malaria Foundation, compared to moving 9 to 120 years of hens’ lives per dollar to a cage-free environment, and a lifespan of 1.5 years per hen.)
So we are currently within the margin of error for the ballpark you quoted. Perhaps, given that you’re partial to humans over animals due to our shared species, that’s not enough for you to allocate the marginal $100m to animals. But maybe that shifts your degree of certainty that we should allocate it all to humans?
Thank you for showing me that calculation. Upon further thought, I think my belief is more along the lines of 10,000,000 to 500,000,000 chickens being equivalent to a single human life.
Based on suffering reduction alone, my opinion is that the weight of human suffering carries at least 10,000,000 times more weight than a chicken. When also considering the potential positive utility of a human, the decision to prioritize human welfare over animal welfare becomes even clearer to me. I hope our society reaches a point at which human suffering has been reduced to the point that we can focus on animal welfare, but I think we’re likely decades away.
I’d like to caveat this by saying I’m rather new to effective altruism, and I expect my views to evolve the more I learn. I’m curious to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying philosophical premises inherent in some of the views expressed here. However, debate week has definitely further solidified my view that we ought to allocate less resources to animal welfare.