Seriously, that’s about all we can do in the short term. We can try to not make the problem worse. Fixing this completely is likely a post-singularity problem. Thus, EA should invest in MIRI.
We can’t feasibly eradicate all the insects now—it’s been said that cockroaches would survive a global nuclear war. And even if we could, it would mean the extinction of the human species. We’re too dependent on them ecologically. If we tried, we’d likely kill ourselves before we got all of them, then the suffering wouldn’t end until the sun eventually heats up enough to burn up the biosphere. Patience now is the better strategy. It ends the suffering sooner.
Someone might suggest gene drives, so I’ll address that too. We can’t use them for eradication of all insect species. Some of them would likely develop resistance first, so we’d have to be very persistent. But we humans wouldn’t last that long.
What might work is to alter insects genetically so they don’t suffer. If we can figure out how to do this we could then try to put the modification on the gene drive, but this is also very risky. Messing with the pain systems might inadvertently make suffering worse, but also make it less obvious. Nature invented pain for reasons. Turning it off would likely put those insects affected at a selective disadvantage. Suffering might evolve again after we get rid of it. Scaling the drive could unbalance the ecology and thereby damage human populations enough that we couldn’t continue the project. It would take a great deal of research to pull this off.
Short of an intelligence explosion, we’d have to genetically engineer an artificial ecology that can sustainably support human life in outer space, but doesn’t suffer. We’d then have the capability to move human civilization off-planet (very expensive), and then use giant space mirrors to start a runaway greenhouse effect that makes Earth look like Venus, finally eradicating the old miserable biosphere. This would require at minimum, a world government. I think an intelligence explosion is easier. Maybe not safer, but easier.
Don’t farm crickets.
Seriously, that’s about all we can do in the short term. We can try to not make the problem worse. Fixing this completely is likely a post-singularity problem. Thus, EA should invest in MIRI.
We can’t feasibly eradicate all the insects now—it’s been said that cockroaches would survive a global nuclear war. And even if we could, it would mean the extinction of the human species. We’re too dependent on them ecologically. If we tried, we’d likely kill ourselves before we got all of them, then the suffering wouldn’t end until the sun eventually heats up enough to burn up the biosphere. Patience now is the better strategy. It ends the suffering sooner.
Someone might suggest gene drives, so I’ll address that too. We can’t use them for eradication of all insect species. Some of them would likely develop resistance first, so we’d have to be very persistent. But we humans wouldn’t last that long.
What might work is to alter insects genetically so they don’t suffer. If we can figure out how to do this we could then try to put the modification on the gene drive, but this is also very risky. Messing with the pain systems might inadvertently make suffering worse, but also make it less obvious. Nature invented pain for reasons. Turning it off would likely put those insects affected at a selective disadvantage. Suffering might evolve again after we get rid of it. Scaling the drive could unbalance the ecology and thereby damage human populations enough that we couldn’t continue the project. It would take a great deal of research to pull this off.
Short of an intelligence explosion, we’d have to genetically engineer an artificial ecology that can sustainably support human life in outer space, but doesn’t suffer. We’d then have the capability to move human civilization off-planet (very expensive), and then use giant space mirrors to start a runaway greenhouse effect that makes Earth look like Venus, finally eradicating the old miserable biosphere. This would require at minimum, a world government. I think an intelligence explosion is easier. Maybe not safer, but easier.