Animals win on scale & neglectedness while humans win on my (and maybe God’s) speciesism bias (but if God exists I think He would appreciate us trying to help out animals i.e. His creations).
David_R
Karma: 40
I just wanted to say I really appreciated you illustrating the scale by translating individuals into seconds.
That really helped me wrap my head around this.
I think donor matching is a good idea and this post has a great title- it got me to read the article more than once. And now I want to donate to the bonus fund but I just have one question first:
Do the non-bonus donors get to decide which charity to support within a range of charities, and if so what’s in that range?
Just wanted to say thanks for your eye opening analaysis.
And I’m not surprised because Fodor relentlessly releases amazing content.
Check out his podcast if you don’t believe me or just want to learn more about science.
Thanks for the recommendations!
Nice!
Does this address the odds and extent of cricket sentience?
I also tried and failed to find a good source to support his claim of screwworm prevalence (and would love further research).
Thanks for this! I think I needed to hear it
Thanks so much for your insight!
I learned a lot although I wish i would have been more clear and asked about the tractability of alternative proteins to price parity (instead of just the tractability of “promoting” them). Because:
Plant-based milks are still more expensive (source) and maybe not as nutritious (e.g. less calcium, B12, etc.) so I think they (and many other existing products) may not be a reliable indicator of the potential of this field to make “conventional animal agriculture obsolete”.
I think their potential to replace factory farming lies in the viability of them becoming more/just as cheap, tasty, nutritious as conventical animal products but I’d love to know if you (and other experts) think that’s probably a pipe dream.
I’d love to be corrected if I’m wrong (although I’m sure you’re very busy) and also wanted to say thanks again.
Do you think that promoting alternative proteins is (by far) the most tractable way to make conventional animal agriculture obsolete?
Do you think increasing public funding and support for alternative proteins is the most pressing challenge facing the industry?
Do you think there is expert consensus on these questions?
I liked your comment a lot, but I’m pretty sure you misunderstood a big part of the argument because there’s a pretty big typo in this post.
In the original recording(4:07) Fredrich argues that advancing alternative proteins should be a significant part of longtermist thinking, but not that they’re “one of the best ways at making the long-term future go well” or even “on par with AI risk or bioengineered pandemics”.
But this transcript makes it seem like he is saying the opposite in the intro:
“They [alternative proteins] should be the priority...”
I think you still bring up a lot of good points though.
this idea sounds good and your website looks great (best of luck with your projects! :)
I’m happy to hear this mess has gone mostly under the radar, thanks for posting
I want to donate as much as I can, but how much is too much/ ultimately counterproductive?
For example
is it worth settling for a noticeably worse (but still adequate) phone service provider for the sake of donating an extra $6 (i.e. 3 bed nets) a month?
Or is sacrificing at that scale too extreme in your opinion?
Amazing comment, stuff like this is the reason I joined the EA forum
Lol, thanks but I have nothing to do with Volts (I just share the same name with that guy :)
edit: I changed my username to avoid confusion and besmirching his good name
Good question, I’m looking forward to the replies.
I’m cautiously optimistic because I think the field has a lot of untapped potential but won’t reach it without way more public support. For example:
“very little public sector funding has been dedicated to alt protein research and development (R&D) to date… [in 2020 the] public expenditure on clean energy R&D in 2020 was $27 billion, which is 490 times the public investment awarded to alt protein R&D [which was $55 million].”—GFI 2021
The public R&D for alt proteins is a fraction of just the US’s annual budget for conventional agriculture agriculture research (about $3.7 billion—Lewis Bollard 2021) and although that bums me out, it also provides an opportunity to turn the tide.
So I think it’s too soon to give up on alternative proteins, but way too soon to be complacent.
Thank you so much for sharing this for free!