Importance of Suffering & S-Risks
Definition
Risks of events that bring about suffering in astronomical amounts
Why s-risks are likely
Technological Advancement facilitates suffering
Current Examples
factory farming, weapons, engineered pandemics, social media
Potential Examples
Space Colonization
Artificial Sentience
Probability
Cheaper to create artificial > biological minds
Cheaper to maintain/repair
No voice
May not be able to express their suffering
e.g., factory farmed animals, minorities
Incidental S-Risks
Unintended side effect
Factory Farming
The result of technological capacity & economic incentive & lack of moral concern
Ignorance
e.g., Some Scientists & Philosophers in the past did not recognize the sentience of non-human animal
e.g., digital algorithms that may be sentient
Agential S-risks
Vice > Virtue
Indifference
e.g,. factory farming, poverty
Ill-Intent
e.g., Wars, Terrorism, Murder
Natural S-risks
Natural suffering on astronomical scale
e.g., Wild life suffering
Pro/Con Reasons for Prioritizing S-risks
Pro
Neglect
Most people who want to improve the world focus on helping individuals alive today > not-yet-born
Likelihood
Scope
S-Risk EV > other risks
low likelihood * Cosmic Value
Impartiality
Con
Difficulty influencing the long-term
Whatever we do now to improve, may be / will be changed by later decisions
Future Moral Agents are at a better position to positively influence the longterm
i.e., short-term efforts are our comparative advantage
Happiness Focused Ethics
Utopian Future
Technology will facilitate reducing suffering
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