In short, I think it may be important but I feel pretty unsure about what the implications are. I guess it generally updates me somewhat towards some of the more speculative things that fall inside our remit, including wild animals and invertebrate welfare.
But basically, I think that longtermism is still way underexplored… so when we start talking about longtermism’s intersection with something like animal welfare, I think it is just really really underexplored. At this point, there may have been a few blog posts looking at that intersection.
So yes, I would be interested in potentially supporting someone to look further into this intersection and believe we mentioned a point on that in our RFP.
Quick thoughts, in terms of subtopics that could be interesting (only if the right person(s) were to do it):
Further examine, from a longtermist perspective, to what extent is wild animal welfare or invertebrate welfare important
Further examine plausible ways emerging tech may entrench bad practices for animals
Explore how likely animal friendly values are to be adopted/​accounted for by an AI (obviously do so in a way that isn’t going to put any AI folks offside)
Doing some initial scoping out of possible ways a philanthropist might give if they were interested in building a field/​subfield around AW and longtermism
That said, I don’t feel I have particularly well developed thoughts on what subtopics look most promising at this intersection. I would also be keen to further hear from the community what sub-topics may seem promising, and if anyone is interested in completing work/​research at this intersection, please reach out!
Good question!
In short, I think it may be important but I feel pretty unsure about what the implications are. I guess it generally updates me somewhat towards some of the more speculative things that fall inside our remit, including wild animals and invertebrate welfare.
But basically, I think that longtermism is still way underexplored… so when we start talking about longtermism’s intersection with something like animal welfare, I think it is just really really underexplored. At this point, there may have been a few blog posts looking at that intersection.
So yes, I would be interested in potentially supporting someone to look further into this intersection and believe we mentioned a point on that in our RFP.
Quick thoughts, in terms of subtopics that could be interesting (only if the right person(s) were to do it):
Further examine, from a longtermist perspective, to what extent is wild animal welfare or invertebrate welfare important
Further examine plausible ways emerging tech may entrench bad practices for animals
Explore how likely animal friendly values are to be adopted/​accounted for by an AI (obviously do so in a way that isn’t going to put any AI folks offside)
Doing some initial scoping out of possible ways a philanthropist might give if they were interested in building a field/​subfield around AW and longtermism
That said, I don’t feel I have particularly well developed thoughts on what subtopics look most promising at this intersection. I would also be keen to further hear from the community what sub-topics may seem promising, and if anyone is interested in completing work/​research at this intersection, please reach out!