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Pain and suffering

TagLast edit: 10 May 2021 10:39 UTC by Leo

The pain and suffering tag is for posts which discuss ways to measure these phenomena, or issues that are notable for causing especially intense pain and suffering (even if they aren’t especially large in scale).

Given that EA tends to focus on the number of people affected by a problem, we may not notice when a problem affects relatively few people but is extremely bad for those it affects, leading to high overall impact. Posts with this tag may push against this tendency.

Content note: Posts with this tag may contain disconcerting or frightening content.

Related entries

mental health | sentience

Log­a­r­ith­mic Scales of Plea­sure and Pain: Rat­ing, Rank­ing, and Com­par­ing Peak Ex­pe­riences Suggest the Ex­is­tence of Long Tails for Bliss and Suffering

algekalipso11 Aug 2019 3:49 UTC
154 points
23 comments42 min readEA link

Re­mind­ing my­self just how awful pain can get (plus, an ex­per­i­ment on my­self)

Ren Ryba15 Mar 2023 22:44 UTC
290 points
57 comments16 min readEA link

Cluster Headache Fre­quency Fol­lows a Long-Tail Distribution

algekalipso2 Aug 2019 22:47 UTC
92 points
18 comments7 min readEA link

Should Chronic Pain be a cause area?

mariushobbhahn18 May 2021 11:31 UTC
64 points
12 comments13 min readEA link

Prob­lem area re­port: Pain

Sid Sharma13 Nov 2020 19:26 UTC
113 points
8 comments51 min readEA link

In­creas­ing Ac­cess to Pain Relief in Devel­op­ing Coun­tries—An EA Perspective

Lee_Sharkey31 Jan 2017 16:13 UTC
88 points
19 comments10 min readEA link

Log­a­r­ith­mic Scales of Plea­sure and Pain (@Effec­tive Altru­ism NYC)

algekalipso19 Nov 2019 9:55 UTC
14 points
2 comments2 min readEA link
(youtu.be)

Get-Out-Of-Hell-Free Necklace

algekalipso9 Jul 2019 21:30 UTC
84 points
15 comments3 min readEA link

Kid­ney stone pain as a po­ten­tial cause area

Dan Elton3 May 2022 1:30 UTC
61 points
6 comments12 min readEA link

Re­think Pri­ori­ties’ Welfare Range Estimates

Bob Fischer23 Jan 2023 11:37 UTC
336 points
103 comments16 min readEA link

Us­ing Ibo­gaine to Create Friendlier Opioids

qfrerichs6 Aug 2019 21:31 UTC
27 points
3 comments5 min readEA link

Treat­ing Cluster Headaches Us­ing N,N-DMT and Other Tryptamines

qfrerichs6 Aug 2019 5:02 UTC
43 points
2 comments10 min readEA link

Notes from “Cog­ni­tion, welfare, and the prob­lem of in­ter­species com­par­i­sons”

Barry Grimes16 Nov 2021 9:17 UTC
30 points
0 comments11 min readEA link

Pain re­lief: a shal­low cause exploration

Samuel Dupret27 Jan 2023 9:55 UTC
84 points
17 comments37 min readEA link
(www.happierlivesinstitute.org)

Affec­tive fore­cast­ing: The challenge of pre­dict­ing fu­ture feel­ings and the im­pli­ca­tions for global pri­ori­ties research

Matt Coleman17 Feb 2022 20:36 UTC
53 points
3 comments21 min readEA link

Reliev­ing ex­treme phys­i­cal pain in hu­mans – an op­por­tu­nity for effec­tive funding

jonleighton10 Oct 2018 12:28 UTC
38 points
16 comments15 min readEA link

Just Look At The Thing! – How The Science of Con­scious­ness In­forms Ethics

algekalipso23 Sep 2022 6:20 UTC
75 points
3 comments9 min readEA link

Re­search Sum­mary: The In­ten­sity of Valenced Ex­pe­rience across Species

Jason Schukraft11 Nov 2020 17:26 UTC
63 points
6 comments4 min readEA link

How to Mea­sure Ca­pac­ity for Welfare and Mo­ral Status

Jason Schukraft1 Jun 2020 15:01 UTC
71 points
19 comments35 min readEA link

[Question] What was the first be­ing on Earth to ex­pe­rience suffer­ing?

Barry Grimes10 Jul 2020 8:05 UTC
13 points
4 comments1 min readEA link

Re­duc­ing night­mares as a cause area

Drew Housman18 Jul 2022 20:29 UTC
157 points
45 comments2 min readEA link

New book — “Suffer­ing-Fo­cused Ethics: Defense and Im­pli­ca­tions”

Magnus Vinding31 May 2020 9:27 UTC
103 points
20 comments4 min readEA link

OPIS policy pa­per: Le­gal­is­ing ac­cess to psilo­cy­bin for the treat­ment of cluster headaches

jonleighton12 Nov 2020 11:10 UTC
43 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

Is pain just a sig­nal to en­list al­tru­ists?

Ben_West1 Oct 2019 21:25 UTC
66 points
10 comments4 min readEA link

The Sub­jec­tive Ex­pe­rience of Time: Welfare Implications

Jason Schukraft27 Jul 2020 13:24 UTC
106 points
21 comments49 min readEA link

How can we re­duce s-risks?

Tobias_Baumann29 Jan 2021 15:46 UTC
42 points
3 comments1 min readEA link
(centerforreducingsuffering.org)

The un­think­able ur­gency of suffering

Aaron Bergman26 Jun 2021 0:14 UTC
53 points
9 comments6 min readEA link
(aaronbergman.substack.com)

De­tect­ing Mo­rally Sig­nifi­cant Pain in Non­hu­mans: Some Philo­soph­i­cal Difficulties

Jason Schukraft23 Dec 2018 17:49 UTC
71 points
8 comments22 min readEA link

[Question] Is it suffer­ing or in­vol­un­tary suffer­ing that’s bad, and when is it (in­vol­un­tary) suffer­ing?

MichaelStJules22 Jun 2020 16:41 UTC
11 points
9 comments1 min readEA link

S-risk FAQ

Tobias_Baumann18 Sep 2017 8:05 UTC
29 points
8 comments8 min readEA link

OPIS ini­ti­a­tive on ac­cess to psilo­cy­bin for cluster headaches

jonleighton10 Sep 2020 8:22 UTC
61 points
5 comments3 min readEA link

Suffer­ing in An­i­mals vs. Humans

Brian_Tomasik15 Aug 2017 0:03 UTC
20 points
0 comments6 min readEA link
(reducing-suffering.org)

What are the Red Flags for Neu­ral Net­work Suffer­ing? - Seeds of Science call for reviewers

rogersbacon12 Aug 2022 16:17 UTC
18 points
0 comments1 min readEA link

If Adult In­sects Mat­ter, How Much Do Ju­ve­niles Mat­ter?

Bob Fischer6 Feb 2023 13:33 UTC
93 points
11 comments25 min readEA link

No in­juries were reported

JulianHazell14 Feb 2023 2:18 UTC
377 points
10 comments2 min readEA link
(muddyclothes.substack.com)

Welfare and felt du­ra­tion (An­dreas Mo­gensen)

Global Priorities Institute27 Nov 2023 15:40 UTC
24 points
5 comments2 min readEA link

The ro­dent birth con­trol landscape

Holly_Elmore29 Apr 2022 20:00 UTC
113 points
3 comments2 min readEA link
(doi.org)

If Su­per­po­si­tions can Suffer

EricBlair21 Oct 2021 20:37 UTC
11 points
9 comments6 min readEA link

De­sire the­o­ries of welfare and non­hu­man animals

MichaelStJules16 Jul 2022 18:52 UTC
20 points
5 comments4 min readEA link

Types of sub­jec­tive welfare

MichaelStJules2 Feb 2024 9:56 UTC
40 points
0 comments18 min readEA link

First S-Risk In­tro Seminar

stefan.torges8 Dec 2020 9:23 UTC
70 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

A re­view of what af­fec­tive neu­ro­science knows about suffer­ing & valence. (TLDR: Affec­tive Neu­ro­science is very con­fused about what suffer­ing is.)

MikeJohnson13 Jan 2017 2:01 UTC
23 points
18 comments12 min readEA link

“Di­men­sions of Pain” work­shop: Sum­mary and up­dated conclusions

Rethink Priorities21 Aug 2023 15:56 UTC
88 points
8 comments13 min readEA link

Re­search Re­port: Im­prov­ing Ac­cess to Pal­li­a­tive Care in Sub-Sa­haran Africa

KT Hobbs13 Feb 2024 0:59 UTC
28 points
0 comments43 min readEA link

Health and hap­piness re­search top­ics—Part 3: The sHALY: Devel­op­ing sub­jec­tive wellbe­ing-based health metrics

Derek30 Dec 2020 15:27 UTC
37 points
2 comments38 min readEA link

Mike, Mouse, Moth, Machine

tobyj27 Dec 2023 10:02 UTC
23 points
4 comments7 min readEA link
(seekingtobejolly.substack.com)

Quick gen­eral thoughts on suffer­ing and consciousness

RobBensinger30 Oct 2021 18:09 UTC
9 points
3 comments22 min readEA link

Differ­ences in the In­ten­sity of Valenced Ex­pe­rience across Species

Jason Schukraft30 Oct 2020 1:13 UTC
93 points
42 comments52 min readEA link

Why Neu­ron Counts Shouldn’t Be Used as Prox­ies for Mo­ral Weight

Adam Shriver28 Nov 2022 12:07 UTC
288 points
45 comments9 min readEA link
(docs.google.com)

An In­tro­duc­tion to the Mo­ral Weight Project

Bob Fischer31 Oct 2022 9:13 UTC
179 points
6 comments10 min readEA link

[Link] Philan­thropy, psychedelics and effec­tive altruism

andzuck22 May 2019 5:54 UTC
11 points
0 comments1 min readEA link

[Link] How un­der­stand­ing valence could help make fu­ture AIs safer

Milan_Griffes8 Oct 2020 18:53 UTC
22 points
2 comments3 min readEA link

Why s-risks are the worst ex­is­ten­tial risks, and how to pre­vent them

Max_Daniel2 Jun 2017 8:48 UTC
8 points
1 comment22 min readEA link
(www.youtube.com)

Blame­wor­thi­ness for Avoid­able Psy­cholog­i­cal Harms

Cullen9 Feb 2021 2:46 UTC
38 points
13 comments9 min readEA link

Re­search Sum­mary: The Sub­jec­tive Ex­pe­rience of Time

Jason Schukraft10 Aug 2020 13:28 UTC
76 points
7 comments4 min readEA link

A ty­pol­ogy of s-risks

Tobias_Baumann21 Dec 2018 18:23 UTC
26 points
1 comment1 min readEA link
(s-risks.org)

EA read­ing list: suffer­ing-fo­cused ethics

richard_ngo3 Aug 2020 9:40 UTC
43 points
3 comments1 min readEA link

Michael Plant: What are the best ways to im­prove world hap­piness?

EA Global3 Nov 2017 7:43 UTC
9 points
1 comment1 min readEA link
(www.youtube.com)

[Question] Shifts in sub­jec­tive well-be­ing scales?

Milan_Griffes18 Aug 2020 18:27 UTC
31 points
6 comments1 min readEA link

New book: The Tango of Ethics: In­tu­ition, Ra­tion­al­ity and the Preven­tion of Suffering

jonleighton2 Jan 2023 8:45 UTC
113 points
3 comments5 min readEA link

Don’t Balk at An­i­mal-friendly Results

Bob Fischer16 Jan 2023 11:52 UTC
152 points
7 comments14 min readEA link

Si­mu­la­tors and Mindcrime

𝕮𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖗𝖆9 Dec 2022 15:20 UTC
1 point
0 comments1 min readEA link

Risk fac­tors for s-risks

Tobias_Baumann13 Feb 2019 17:51 UTC
40 points
3 comments1 min readEA link
(s-risks.org)

New 4-hour pod­cast about the fu­ture of con­scious­ness with An­drés Gómez Emils­son from the Qualia Re­search In­sti­tute

Gus Docker30 Jan 2021 9:41 UTC
11 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

The Im­por­tance of Ar­tifi­cial Sentience

Jamie_Harris3 Mar 2021 17:17 UTC
70 points
10 comments12 min readEA link
(www.sentienceinstitute.org)

Com­mon-sense sen­tience is dubious

Timothy Chan21 Mar 2023 15:32 UTC
23 points
4 comments7 min readEA link

Un­der­stand­ing the two most com­mon men­tal health prob­lems in the world

spencerg6 Jul 2023 14:06 UTC
35 points
5 comments7 min readEA link
(www.clearerthinking.org)

[Question] De­bates on re­duc­ing long-term s-risks?

jackchang1106 Apr 2023 1:26 UTC
13 points
2 comments1 min readEA link

What Are Dreams Worth?

Hans Gundlach14 May 2023 7:06 UTC
19 points
1 comment4 min readEA link

Perché i rischi di sofferenza sono i rischi es­isten­ziali peg­giori e come pos­si­amo prevenirli

EA Italy17 Jan 2023 11:14 UTC
1 point
0 comments1 min readEA link

HLI’s Giv­ing Sea­son 2023 Re­search Overview

Happier Lives Institute28 Nov 2023 14:03 UTC
53 points
4 comments19 min readEA link
(www.happierlivesinstitute.org)

[Question] Who should we in­ter­view for The 80,000 Hours Pod­cast?

Luisa_Rodriguez13 Sep 2023 12:23 UTC
86 points
131 comments2 min readEA link

[Linkpost] My moral view: Re­duc­ing suffer­ing, ‘how to be’ as fun­da­men­tal to moral­ity, no pos­i­tive value, cons of grand the­ory, and more—By Si­mon Knutsson

Alistair Webster25 Aug 2023 12:53 UTC
35 points
2 comments2 min readEA link
(centerforreducingsuffering.org)

My fa­vorite ar­ti­cles by Brian To­masik and what they are about

Timothy Chan24 Feb 2024 18:10 UTC
74 points
4 comments4 min readEA link

Med­i­cal As­sis­tance in Dy­ing for the Men­tally Ill as a Cause Area for Nega­tive Utilitarians

anonymous throwaway1 Apr 2024 8:04 UTC
17 points
6 comments2 min readEA link

Does the Tra­jec­tory of Pain Mat­ter?

William McAuliffe18 Oct 2022 19:18 UTC
31 points
1 comment11 min readEA link

The Welfare Range Table

Bob Fischer7 Nov 2022 10:19 UTC
358 points
17 comments8 min readEA link

A chat with Kyle Jo­hannsen, au­thor of Wild An­i­mal Ethics: The Mo­ral and Poli­ti­cal Prob­lem of Wild An­i­mal Suffering

Michael Huang18 Jun 2022 13:00 UTC
24 points
3 comments9 min readEA link

Ge­netic En­hance­ment as a Cause Area

Galton25 Dec 2019 11:30 UTC
104 points
20 comments12 min readEA link

How much (phys­i­cal) suffer­ing is there? Part II: Animals

mariushobbhahn10 Jan 2021 12:48 UTC
13 points
4 comments15 min readEA link

Pro­mot­ing com­pas­sion­ate longtermism

jonleighton7 Dec 2022 14:26 UTC
117 points
5 comments12 min readEA link

PAF: Opi­oid Epidemic

egastfriend13 Mar 2019 13:25 UTC
12 points
5 comments1 min readEA link
(www.harvardea.org)

Edit­ing wild an­i­mals is un­der­ex­plored in What We Owe the Future

Michael Huang31 Aug 2022 14:26 UTC
32 points
5 comments3 min readEA link

The Rel­a­tive Im­por­tance of the Sever­ity and Du­ra­tion of Pain

William McAuliffe18 Oct 2022 16:50 UTC
93 points
4 comments25 min readEA link

Health and hap­piness re­search top­ics—Part 1: Back­ground on QALYs and DALYs

Derek9 Dec 2020 0:38 UTC
125 points
8 comments61 min readEA link

Suffer­ing re­lief vs life extension

drbrake19 Nov 2018 16:55 UTC
5 points
1 comment1 min readEA link

What Is It Like For An­i­mals To Suffer?

ozymandias22 Jun 2021 7:00 UTC
15 points
0 comments1 min readEA link
(thingofthings.substack.com)

A brief look at re­duc­ing the effi­ciency of genocides

NLHeath11 Nov 2020 18:07 UTC
35 points
5 comments9 min readEA link

David Pearce: Abo­li­tion­ist bioethics

EA Global28 Aug 2015 16:14 UTC
17 points
0 comments1 min readEA link
(www.youtube.com)

Why I think the Foun­da­tional Re­search In­sti­tute should re­think its approach

MikeJohnson20 Jul 2017 20:46 UTC
45 points
76 comments20 min readEA link

Health and hap­piness re­search top­ics—Part 2: The HALY+: Im­prov­ing prefer­ence-based health metrics

Derek3 Jan 2021 15:08 UTC
56 points
3 comments73 min readEA link

[Creative Writ­ing Con­test] What Mother Doesn’t Want Happy Chil­dren?

Zmavli Caimle30 Oct 2021 4:55 UTC
1 point
0 comments4 min readEA link

Evolu­tion, Pain, Suffer­ing, and Ed Yong

MattBall24 Nov 2022 13:36 UTC
13 points
4 comments2 min readEA link
(www.mattball.org)

An­nounc­ing WildAn­i­malSuffer­ing.org, a new re­source launched for the cause

David van Beveren12 Dec 2022 13:48 UTC
184 points
29 comments1 min readEA link

On­line Work­ing /​ Com­mu­nity Meetup for the Abo­li­tion of Suffering

Ruth_Fr.31 May 2022 9:16 UTC
7 points
5 comments1 min readEA link

Why I’m skep­ti­cal about us­ing sub­jec­tive time ex­pe­rience to as­sign moral weights

Andreas_Mogensen22 Jan 2024 11:45 UTC
64 points
15 comments7 min readEA link

In­tac­tivism as a po­ten­tial Effec­tive Altru­ist cause area?

Question Mark26 Jun 2021 7:21 UTC
1 point
8 comments3 min readEA link

Sym­pa­thec­tomies—The New Lobotomy

handoftheenemy27 Aug 2022 8:28 UTC
38 points
10 comments5 min readEA link

[Question] Can you recom­mend as­so­ci­a­tions that deal with re­duc­ing suffer­ing?

Yanay12 Sep 2022 23:28 UTC
24 points
17 comments1 min readEA link

Short Re­search Sum­mary: Can in­sects feel pain? A re­view of the neu­ral and be­havi­oural ev­i­dence by Gib­bons et al. 2022

Meghan Barrett22 Nov 2022 16:46 UTC
213 points
21 comments3 min readEA link
(authors.elsevier.com)

Prevent­ing low back pain with exercise

Ryan Kidd28 Sep 2021 5:00 UTC
14 points
7 comments2 min readEA link

How much (phys­i­cal) suffer­ing is there? Part I: Humans

mariushobbhahn10 Jan 2021 12:47 UTC
9 points
4 comments11 min readEA link

The ap­pli­ca­bil­ity of transsen­tien­tist crit­i­cal path analysis

Peter Sølling11 Aug 2020 11:26 UTC
0 points
2 comments32 min readEA link
(www.optimalaltruism.com)

Is Suffer­ing Con­vex?

Davidmanheim21 Oct 2018 11:44 UTC
14 points
16 comments3 min readEA link

AMA: To­bias Bau­mann, Cen­ter for Re­duc­ing Suffering

Tobias_Baumann6 Sep 2020 10:45 UTC
48 points
45 comments1 min readEA link

High Time For Drug Policy Re­form. Part 2/​4: Six Ways It Could Do Good And An­ti­ci­pat­ing The Objections

MichaelPlant10 Aug 2017 19:34 UTC
16 points
15 comments28 min readEA link

Grayson Hadley on Elimi­nat­ing Suffering

Group Organizer8 Oct 2021 1:03 UTC
2 points
0 comments1 min readEA link

A new place to dis­cuss cog­ni­tive sci­ence, ethics and hu­man alignment

Daniel_Friedrich4 Nov 2022 14:34 UTC
9 points
1 comment2 min readEA link
(www.facebook.com)

Sharks prob­a­bly do feel pain: a re­ply to Michael Tye and others

Max_Carpendale4 Feb 2019 13:51 UTC
21 points
1 comment5 min readEA link

The prob­lem of ar­tifi­cial suffering

mlsbt24 Sep 2021 14:43 UTC
49 points
3 comments9 min readEA link

The Pos­si­bil­ity of Microor­ganism Suffering

Elias Au-Yeung7 Aug 2022 6:02 UTC
48 points
5 comments25 min readEA link

The case to abol­ish the biol­ogy of suffer­ing as a longter­mist action

Gaetan_Selle21 May 2022 8:51 UTC
36 points
8 comments4 min readEA link

In­ver­te­brate pain and suffer­ing: What do anal­gesic stud­ies tell us?

Timothy Chan22 Sep 2021 16:52 UTC
32 points
3 comments11 min readEA link
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