Fwiw, I think wild animal suffering and s-risks were reasonably widely discussed amongst longtermists earlier than 2015.
It would seem reasonably surprising to me if when we collonised the galaxies we spread wild animal suffering as it is on earth, so that doesn’t feel like a strong reason to try to avoid human extinction to me (even aside from the reason you point to).
S-risks do seem like a stronger reason to care less about extinction. On the other hand, the strongest arguments for the plausibility of s-risks seem to do with AI alignment to me, rather than with humans holding power. So increased emphasis on s-risks doesn’t seem to me like it would explain the trend I’m pointing to.
Fwiw, I think wild animal suffering and s-risks were reasonably widely discussed amongst longtermists earlier than 2015.
It would seem reasonably surprising to me if when we collonised the galaxies we spread wild animal suffering as it is on earth, so that doesn’t feel like a strong reason to try to avoid human extinction to me (even aside from the reason you point to).
S-risks do seem like a stronger reason to care less about extinction. On the other hand, the strongest arguments for the plausibility of s-risks seem to do with AI alignment to me, rather than with humans holding power. So increased emphasis on s-risks doesn’t seem to me like it would explain the trend I’m pointing to.