Move Over, Insect Suffering: The Insect Vibing Hypothesis
I’m pretty bullish on “insect suffering” actually being the hedonic safe-haven for the planet’s moral portfolio
So as a K-selected species, our lives are pretty valuable, in terms of parental investment, time-to-reproductive-fruition, and how long we expect to live. As such, the neuroscience of human motivation is heavily tilted towards avoiding-harm; I think the studies say that people feel gains/losses at about +1/-2.5 valences; so, loss is felt much more sharply. (And maybe the average human life is hedonically net-negative for this reason; I go back and forth on that)
But for an R-selected species, we see all these so-reckless-they’re-suicidal behaviors. A fly is hellbent on landing on our food despite how huge and menacing we are. It really wants that food! A single opportunity for food is huge, in the fly’s expected lifespan, and if the well-fed fly can go breed, then it’s gonna pop out a thousand kids. Evolutionary jackpot!
But how much must the fly enjoy that food; and how little must it fear death, for us to see the behaviors we see?
I suspect the R-selected species are actually experiencing hedonically positive lives, and, serendipitously, outnumber us a bajillion to one.
Earth is a happy glowing ball of joyously screwing insects, and no sad apes can push that into the negative.
Move Over, Insect Suffering: The Insect Vibing Hypothesis
I’m pretty bullish on “insect suffering” actually being the hedonic safe-haven for the planet’s moral portfolio
So as a K-selected species, our lives are pretty valuable, in terms of parental investment, time-to-reproductive-fruition, and how long we expect to live. As such, the neuroscience of human motivation is heavily tilted towards avoiding-harm; I think the studies say that people feel gains/losses at about +1/-2.5 valences; so, loss is felt much more sharply. (And maybe the average human life is hedonically net-negative for this reason; I go back and forth on that)
But for an R-selected species, we see all these so-reckless-they’re-suicidal behaviors. A fly is hellbent on landing on our food despite how huge and menacing we are. It really wants that food! A single opportunity for food is huge, in the fly’s expected lifespan, and if the well-fed fly can go breed, then it’s gonna pop out a thousand kids. Evolutionary jackpot!
But how much must the fly enjoy that food; and how little must it fear death, for us to see the behaviors we see?
I suspect the R-selected species are actually experiencing hedonically positive lives, and, serendipitously, outnumber us a bajillion to one.
Earth is a happy glowing ball of joyously screwing insects, and no sad apes can push that into the negative.