I bet there are a lot more people who care about animals’ feelings and who care a lot more, than those who care about the aesthetics of brutality in nature.
Well, at the moment, there are hundreds of environmental-preservation organizations and basically no organizations dedicated to reducing wild-animal suffering. Environmentalism as a cause is much more mainstream than animal welfare. Just like the chickens that go into people’s nuggets, animals suffering in nature “are out of sight, and the connection between [preserving pristine habitats] and animals living terrible lives elsewhere is hard to visualize.”
It’s encouraging that more LessWrongers are veg than average, although I think 12.4% is pretty typical for elite universities and the like as well. (But maybe that underscores your point.)
The biggest peculiarity of Brian Tomasik’s utility function, that is least likely to ever be shared by the majority of humanity, is probably not that he cares about animals (even that he cares about insects) but that he cares so much more about suffering than happiness and other good things.
An example post. I care a lot about suffering, a little about happiness, and none about other things.
The exchange rate in your utility function between good things and bad things is pretty relevent to whether you should prefer CEV or paperclipping (And what the changes in the probabilities of each even based on actions you might take would have to be in order justify them) and whether you think lab universes would be a good thing.
Well, at the moment, there are hundreds of environmental-preservation organizations and basically no organizations dedicated to reducing wild-animal suffering. Environmentalism as a cause is much more mainstream than animal welfare. Just like the chickens that go into people’s nuggets, animals suffering in nature “are out of sight, and the connection between [preserving pristine habitats] and animals living terrible lives elsewhere is hard to visualize.”
It’s encouraging that more LessWrongers are veg than average, although I think 12.4% is pretty typical for elite universities and the like as well. (But maybe that underscores your point.)
An example post. I care a lot about suffering, a little about happiness, and none about other things.
Yep!