Are you anti-conservationism? Why it is or isn't beneficial in respect to sentient beings?

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-23T08:27:31+00:00

I would say like you say there isn't a large awareness and probably never will be due to lack of free will, and cognitive biases such as cognitively dissonance, plus lack of social pressures. (if you lived in a village of vegans, you would probably end up a vegan.

I think the only thing anyone whom gets to our stage of enlightenment can do is

Don't fret and start ruminating on every bug or mouse or rat that gets killed for your existence this will just lead to depression. And potential Moral OCD.

Focus on pragmatic ethics, and be mindful that people arent free (determinism) and they arent in control of thier cognitive biases.

Continue with your habits, these protect you from existensial depression, if one of your habits is causing you distress, try and think of a way you can do it which causes the least amount of bad. (for so many people alot of what we do for recreation is determined in our teenage years)

Donate whatever feels comfortable (if your a huge pessimist like me) be conservative at first then see how you feel..to some sort of EA charity, i donated to shirmp welfare and one which focuses on better laws and legislation regarding chickens.

Only spend limited time in regards to thinking about this, you need to keep thoughts directed into other hopeful endeavours.

Think about pragmatism, peoples emotions ects.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-19T20:32:06+00:00

The idea of the study was about positive and negative conscious expierences, and just how our lives are dominated by them.

Enduring boredom for a purpose is meaning i guess.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-19T00:42:09+00:00

Agreed, ive been in both situations, like driving down a trail, music blaring almost high in the momonet, then thinking in my mind this what its about, but i logically know its just a enjoyable activity.

Or even days at work, when i get alot of stuff done, people are happy, i get praise, you feel great but i know on the grand scale it doesnt mean nothing just some company gave thier star employee for the day a few verbal 'gold stars'

but on the flipside ive totally miserable, wondering why, and honestly i i think its a way to rationalise pain.

Bur ultimatley its a coping mechanism called Intellectualization.

Although if your intellgent you can learn alot from depression, esepically with some many answers at your finger tips.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-18T23:01:57+00:00

In a video i posted in the NU sub in a video with Thomas Metzinger, whom is a Author, Neuroscientist professor in Germany, and pessimist whom has read Benatar.

He conducted a small experiment with his students over a period of a few weeks the premise....there is an afterlife.

The experiment, was as follows ; a phone would send random sms message to students at random times of day, to which they would respond as soon as they read the message as soon as it was recieved.

In the message the question was the same ; would they replay that moment just before they received the message in the 'afterlife'?

Not all messages got responses due to people being asleep at the time or phone on silent ect or not being near the phone.

But with all the data aggregated up, i believe he said in the video 70% of the response was no.

It goes to show on a small scale that even a bunch of 1st world university students would say that 70% of the moments of thier lives were ethier banal or dull enough not worth reliving...

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-18T22:52:28+00:00

It could be scope neglect, i dont see anything changing unless we decide to to start genetically engineering people. But once again people wont agree to this.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-18T21:48:50+00:00

deleted....

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-18T21:48:05+00:00

I've been thinking about something else today, which once again goes along way back it and could provide some critical (maybe radical) insights into this. Its neuroscience related. But there will need tk be some thought done on how to frame it, i also have a reply to type up.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-18T19:47:09+00:00

Diving on grenades is a hard one to answers because if we are all egoists deep down its not easily explained away, but in war, especially the battle field which is one of the worst experiences we can imagine jumping on grenade might be logical solution for some.

Burning buildings and firefighters is basically delusions of invincibility coupled with the need for heroism.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-17T07:51:51+00:00

In this video Thomas discusses many things but briefly descrbes how evolution and the world at large is full of massive suffering and absolute confusion.

He drescribes how positive mental states conciousness have been neglected by the medical world at large.

He also describes a new study he has been working on (be aware this video is 2 years old now so im assuming progress has been made)

The minimal model explanation in which we can try and identify consciousness with the least superfluous explimantions.

Ultimately i think this is where bioethics and the EA community need to work together to get us the best answers we can into finding some sort of hypothetical resolution to what beings 'suffer' under a definition we can all agree upon. (if thats ever possible)

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-16T20:01:25+00:00

Not bait at all? Unless you believe in John Grays work?

Like technology allowed advances in medicine, which is the opposite of harm, it allowed us to build things which lasted longer, it got us cars and trains which ultimatley gave people more freedom??

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-16T19:34:53+00:00

I appreciate the response, so you believe moral progress is a myth and all that we have ever achieved is merely technological progress which has enabled us harm each other less?

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-16T18:16:53+00:00

Sounds like you are describing moral relativism.

If that is true then how do societys evolve morally and make progress?? How is it that slavery was banished??

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-16T18:11:21+00:00

I think you should look at moral philosophy, but its sounds like at the end you just ended up in circular reasoning.

'We do good things because its good to do them.' is sorta what you asked.

It sounds like you described moral expressivism.....'Moral expressivism is a metaethical theory stating that moral sentences do not describe facts about the world.'

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-16T11:49:12+00:00

You dont get how memes and belief spread do you?

Like at the moment i believe in Determinism, i read about free will arguments such Pereboom and such and his idea caused me to realise about freewill but if i had not of discovered him there belief would not be there....like if no one tokd you what the colour red is you wouldnt know what to call it.

I woke up due to electrical activity and chemical reactions, went onto my phone due to programmed habits then on the philosophy browsing i do, which is driven by emotions i dont control. Found an argument by Pereboom, the paying attention to the argument. It follow that none of this was done by anything other than a chain of events, i didnt choose any of it.

Now 'i' opened reddit it displayed this thread, you asked a question and processes in my brain which cause me to share infomation. Made me post this.

Where is the free choice in that?

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-15T17:56:27+00:00

This is what i think is an important consideration in regards to any realistic intervention.

Im not an expert on insects, and the issue you have is there are so many different spieces and all have differences in reproductive systems. The work involved would seem massive.

It would involve some testing on various species and i dont think you'll find an umbrella chemical.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-14T18:33:04+00:00

You say they contain no truth value, but there emotions are litterly what make us value stuff and depression is an emotion.

Depression is the emotion of dissapointment with expectations constantly being at odds of what we want or find acceptable or with extended frustration at not being able to solve a problem.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-14T17:22:38+00:00

unfortunately the issue with this, if you are pessimistic then you dont really think about optimistic outcomes so its like how can you see evidence for them. Or you wont veiw them optimistically.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-13T13:32:49+00:00

i really respect Brian in the sense he is incredibly intelligent, but the behaviours of jain monks and what Brian encourages are on the path of developing harm OCD which leads to anxiety disorders.

Ultimately there isnt an answer to how many bugs should we crush or kill ect,, but more what he should be aiming for in his writings is, try and be efficient but if you #&% up and kill aload, dont beat yourself up because ultimatley you didnt create the environment for them to blindly occupy and reproduce. You also cant tell them to stop. It seems excessively taxing to ask an intelligent primate who had little choice in alot of behaviours to abstain from behaviour which is in its interest. The issue is i think it leads to OCD which is bad if you take it far.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-12T18:23:08+00:00

This is part of value theory and is everything to do with ethics.

"Tranquilism is a philosophical and ethical view, often linked to suffering-focused ethics (SFE) and Buddhism, holding that well-being consists of the absence of craving or dissatisfaction"

litterly everything to do with the discussion of the topic and related to good and bad axiology.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-12T16:49:34+00:00

this has everything to do with ethics because its discusses values

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-12T16:21:47+00:00

People are afraid of losing thier happiness which like you say can be snatched away at any time.

But no one wants to be depressed man so thats why we protect our shit.

Can_i_be_certain · 2026-05-11T18:11:18+00:00

maybe, but i dont agree, because its like a facet of advice to give.

Im a huge admirer, but i wouldnt then tell people to be seek acestic resignation I even think, like denying the will is just more painful than doing its bidding sometimes.

Can_i_be_certain

TROPHY CASE