That’s a great question, Jacob, and I don’t think I have a full answer!
I had funny conversations with my partner about this. He is (or was) an anti-natalist, and thought it is always wrong to “inflict existence” on someone. But I thought that I would always choose life over no-life, and would want to be born into virtually any context (provided the alternative is not being born at all). This is just to illustrate that people have widely different intuitions on this question.
I think the challenge for effective altruists is to find an answer to this question that is as much constrained by empirical evidence and good argument as possible.
That’s a great question, Jacob, and I don’t think I have a full answer!
I had funny conversations with my partner about this. He is (or was) an anti-natalist, and thought it is always wrong to “inflict existence” on someone. But I thought that I would always choose life over no-life, and would want to be born into virtually any context (provided the alternative is not being born at all). This is just to illustrate that people have widely different intuitions on this question.
I think the challenge for effective altruists is to find an answer to this question that is as much constrained by empirical evidence and good argument as possible.