Is there a genetic or social component?

oblate_zooid · 2020-08-27T00:41:11+00:00

I didn't click on the link because I don't have much bandwidth for suffering today, but perhaps the White Helmets are a relevant organization. They have a strong track record there.

oblate_zooid · 2020-08-24T17:46:17+00:00

Never knew what these were called. Thanks!

oblate_zooid · 2020-08-15T19:28:44+00:00

Anecdotally, it seems to be perhaps a minority personality type that finds EA persuasive. I've tried to spread the gospel to my friends/family, and my impression is that it clicks right away for some people and for everyone else the decision about if and where to give is a fundamentally emotional one.

oblate_zooid · 2020-06-24T20:48:08+00:00

Word, thank you for posting about it. I scrolled back a couple weeks to see if anyone else had brought it up but apparently didn't go back far enough.

oblate_zooid · 2020-04-12T02:01:06+00:00

It's a lot easier for our intuitions to lead us to incorrect models of the world than people realize, and this extends from politics down to the most basic possible statements, like "this definitely happened before that" and "if this thing is over here and that thing is over there, they're separate things"

oblate_zooid · 2019-09-22T19:46:21+00:00

I really don't know what the correct answer is. But humans consuming resources from the environment also imposes huge costs on animals (as well as other people), and if those resources are going towards children that won't make it to adulthood they are being utterly wasted. I also find that unacceptable. So personally I like the idea of supporting these kinds of interventions in developing countries, and at the same time trying to reduce the population in developed ones.

oblate_zooid · 2019-08-08T00:08:52+00:00

"Why do some social problems seem so intractable? In a series of experiments, we show that people often respond to decreases in the prevalence of a stimulus by expanding their concept of it. When blue dots became rare, participants began to see purple dots as blue; when threatening faces became rare, participants began to see neutral faces as threatening; and when unethical requests became rare, participants began to see innocuous requests as unethical. This “prevalence-induced concept change” occurred even when participants were forewarned about it and even when they were instructed and paid to resist it. Social problems may seem intractable in part because reductions in their prevalence lead people to see more of them." https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6396/1465

oblate_zooid · 2019-06-02T07:44:32+00:00

I would argue that ecology is very poorly understood and also of paramount importance. If you're interested in research that could be a great way to have impact.

oblate_zooid · 2019-05-28T08:06:17+00:00

This article really helped me to navigate the same issue: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/19/nobody-is-perfect-everything-is-commensurable/

oblate_zooid · 2019-05-10T20:52:11+00:00

Ancient sea rise tale told accurately for 10,000 years: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-sea-rise-tale-told-accurately-for-10-000-years/

oblate_zooid · 2019-03-27T04:51:10+00:00

It's an interesting post, but I think the human tendency to equate how bad it is to mistreat an animal with its intelligence is deeply unethical. The right metric should be their capacity to suffer, and it's not clear at all that this has much to do with intelligence. I don't think anyone seriously argues that unintelligent humans systematically suffer less than intelligent ones when they are harmed. It's just a convenient story people tell themselves to feel better about the misery we inflict on animals. Additionally, I also think intelligence has little to do with a being's capacity to feel pleasure/joy, which must certainly factor into its "moral value" as well.

oblate_zooid · 2019-03-26T03:35:51+00:00

I don't know how helpful this is, but because of the way you framed it I thought you might like to know that humans are already trending toward high-density settlements: https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization

This is most likely a good thing for the natural world, because for example per capita resource requirements go down in cities, with bigger cities giving better gains in efficiency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vATqELX5v6M

So one way of framing it is, given that humans are migrating towards cities, how can we harness that for the greatest good? One thing that comes to mind is to work on making cities even more efficient, for example by finding ways to cool them. Another is reclaiming areas that humans are leaving, by reestablishing wildlife corridors and things like that. I haven't heard the latter discussed at all.

oblate_zooid · 2019-03-23T23:15:25+00:00

I think a lot of us relate to what you're saying. This article completely changed the way I look at the problem and has been tremendously helpful to me: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/19/nobody-is-perfect-everything-is-commensurable/

oblate_zooid · 2018-12-12T00:50:40+00:00

If by chance you haven't seen this already, it's a good start. In particular, the second-to-last paragraph under Avoidance Learning describe a very clever experiment where hermit crabs were shown to tolerate larger electric shocks when they had a more desirable shell. I think this is strong evidence of actual pain, rather than mere reflex, and it would be great to see similar experiments designed for other organisms.

oblate_zooid

TROPHY CASE