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If you care about animal suffering, human extinction is exactly the wrong way to solve the problem. Without humans, there will still be pain. Wasps will lay egg
by cousin_it 11y ago
If you care about animal suffering, human extinction is exactly the wrong way to solve the problem. Without humans, there will still be pain. Wasps will lay eggs in caterpillars until the Sun goes out. Intelligence is our only hope for abolishing suffering, not just for us but for all living creatures.
- monort 11y agoI was pondering the same idea, but to stop animal from suffering in nature you need to stop all food chains above plants. Right?
- mrfusion 11y agoMaybe just genetically engineer them to feel no fear or pain at the moment of being eaten?
- willholloway 11y agoImagine a nature reserve where predators were air-dropped cultured meat, and drones tracked predators and administered a non-lethal deterrent like a targeted acoustic weapon at a lion chasing a baby elephant. The herbivore population would be kept in equilibrium with future-contraceptives.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoIt's a tricky thing, an abortion-level tricky thing actually. At the top of life's process you have humans, and human death is obviously Bad. At the bottom of life you have simple chemical reactions, which are obviously Quite Cool. The line will have to be drawn somewhere in between, but we need to figure out where. Personally, I expect it to be somewhere above plants and bugs and below kittens. But then, I'm a bit biased about bugs - I tend to think about them as either "those ugly annoying things" or "cool high-tech drones we'll hopefully program one day". And I'm definitely biased about kittens.
- simonh 11y agoSo what are you going to do, commit genocide against all the wasps? Not that I am necessarily against genocide in all cases. If every single HIV virus or anthrax bacterium was wiped off the face of the planet I would shed no tears, but you need to think through a position like yours. Are you in favour of whale eradication due to their predation of Krill?
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- cousin_it 11y agoI don't advocate killing anyone just yet. My preferred approach is more like "transhumanism, merging utility functions, worldwide cooperation, singleton entity, reshaping the world with infinite care". The eventual solution could be as mild as ecosystem redesign, or as extreme as moving all life into simulations. Whatever maximizes humanity's utility function, which I don't claim to understand yet.
- willholloway 11y agoA fellow abolitionist! For the people wondering how, here is an essay by David Pierce on some possibilities for how humanity could reduce suffering in the animal kingdom. http://www.hedweb.com/transhumanism/humanity-plus.html http://www.hedweb.com/transhumanism/humanity-plus.html
- TeMPOraL 11y agoReminds me of "Transhumanism as Simplified Humanism"[0]. [0] - http://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity/simplified/ http://www.yudkowsky.net/singularity/simplified/