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Bentham's Bulldog
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Don't Eat Honey
Bentham's Bulldog13d4-2

I tend to think farming decreases wild animal suffering by lowering wild animal populations https://reducing-suffering.org/humanitys-net-impact-on-wild-animal-suffering/

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The Lies of Big Bug
Bentham's Bulldog18d-10

I think the evidence favors the conclusion that insects feel pain but doesn't make it certain.  Maybe 2/3 odds!  However, even if the odds are, say, 1%, they matter a lot. 

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Thinking Insect Suffering Is The Biggest Deal In The World Is Surprisingly Intuitive
Bentham's Bulldog2mo1-4

I use them both to refer to a kind of unpleasant experience.  

 

While it might be that what you're saying is correct, it's at least plausible that creatures with simple minds--so long as they still perform normal functions--can suffer intensely https://benthams.substack.com/p/betting-on-ubiquitous-pain.  So for that reason it's still very bad in expectation. 

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Thinking Insect Suffering Is The Biggest Deal In The World Is Surprisingly Intuitive
Bentham's Bulldog2mo1-4

Even if we're not full on fanatics--multiplying probability times magnitude in EV calculations--.2% risks are obviously not worth rounding down to zero.  A .2% chance that we were torturing 10^18 people would be the worst thing in the world! 

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Keeping it (less than) real: Against ℶ₂ possible people or worlds
Bentham's Bulldog5mo10

But not all possible people are continuous wavefunctions! 

Reply1
Keeping it (less than) real: Against ℶ₂ possible people or worlds
Bentham's Bulldog5mo60

Bentham's bulldog here!  It seems like you're calculating the number of distinct people--in the sense of the number of people that differs regarding some mental or physical property.  But that's not what's relevant.  SIA favors theories with Beth 2 copies of the same person. 

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Wild Animal Suffering Is The Worst Thing In The World
Bentham's Bulldog5mo407

First of all, the claim that wild animal suffering is serious doesn't depend on the claim that animals suffer more than they are happy.  I happen to think human suffering is very serious, even though I think humans live positive lives.  

Second, I don't think it's depressive bias infecting my judgments.  I am quite happy--actually to a rather unusual degree.  Instead, the reason to think that animals live mostly bad lives is that nearly every animal lives a very short life that culminates in a painful death on account of R-selection--if you live only ~a week, you don't have enough positive experiences to outweigh the badness of a painful death.  

Regarding the claim that I should be speaking out against factory farming, um...I'm not sure if you've read the rest of my writing.  

https://benthams.substack.com/p/factory-farming-delenda-est

https://benthams.substack.com/p/weve-created-hell-its-called-factory

https://benthams.substack.com/p/factory-farming-is-not-just-bad-its-35e?utm_source=publication-search

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I Have A New Paper Out Arguing Against The Asymmetry And For The Existence of Happy People Being Very Good
Bentham's Bulldog8mo-2-2

Well, sometimes getting a lot of arguments for a view should convince you of the view.

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Why I Think All The Species Of Significantly Debated Consciousness Are Conscious And Suffer Intensely
Bentham's Bulldog8mo10

Yes oops

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The Case For Giving To The Shrimp Welfare Project
Bentham's Bulldog8mo-3-2

I refer you to my response to Said Achmiz's comment.  Do you have a better way of estimating animal consciousness?  Sure, the report isn't perfect, but it's better than alternatives.  It's irrational to say "well, we don't know exactly how much they suffer, so let's ignore them entirely." https://www.goodthoughts.blog/p/refusing-to-quantify-is-refusing

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-12Don't Eat Honey
13d
69
31Summary of John Halstead's Book-Length Report on Existential Risks From Climate Change
18d
14
-5The Lies of Big Bug
20d
2
-7A Very Simple Case For Giving To Shrimp
1mo
1
5The Unparalleled Awesomeness of Effective Altruism Conferences
1mo
0
6AI Might Kill Everyone
1mo
0
-9Thinking Insect Suffering Is The Biggest Deal In The World Is Surprisingly Intuitive
2mo
23
-1How To Help Neglected Animals
2mo
1
-12Insect Suffering Is The Biggest Issue: What To Do About It
3mo
9
18Everything's An Emergency
4mo
0
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