It sounds like you and Michael just have different values. It’s pretty clear that you’d only find Michael’s argument viable if you share his opinion on animals. If you don’t share his value, you’d place different weights on the importance of the risk of MIRI doing a lot of bad things to animals.
I disagree that “[f]rom the reader’s point of view, this kind of argument shouldn’t get much weight.” It should get weight for readers that agree with the value, and shouldn’t get weight for readers that disagree with the value.
No, that’s exactly the issue—I want as much as the next person to see animals have better lives. I just don’t see why the ratio of humans to animals would be high in the future, especially if you weight the moral consideration to brain mass or information states.
I just don’t see why the ratio of humans to animals would be high in the future
I agree with you that it probably won’t be high. But I would have to be >99% confident that animals won’t comprise much of the utility of the far future for me to be willing to just ignore this factor, and I’m nowhere near that confident. Maybe you’re just a lot more confident than I am.
It sounds like you and Michael just have different values. It’s pretty clear that you’d only find Michael’s argument viable if you share his opinion on animals. If you don’t share his value, you’d place different weights on the importance of the risk of MIRI doing a lot of bad things to animals.
I disagree that “[f]rom the reader’s point of view, this kind of argument shouldn’t get much weight.” It should get weight for readers that agree with the value, and shouldn’t get weight for readers that disagree with the value.
No, that’s exactly the issue—I want as much as the next person to see animals have better lives. I just don’t see why the ratio of humans to animals would be high in the future, especially if you weight the moral consideration to brain mass or information states.
I’m just wary of making confident predictions of the far future. A lot can change in a million years...
I agree with you that it probably won’t be high. But I would have to be >99% confident that animals won’t comprise much of the utility of the far future for me to be willing to just ignore this factor, and I’m nowhere near that confident. Maybe you’re just a lot more confident than I am.