The Human Domination Spectrum
2 min read
How much of a sentient being’s life: environment, body and mind, is controlled and designed for the interests of another group of beings, particularly humans?
- Obviously things are not as simple as they appear in this visual framework. For example, wild animals' bodies and mind are changing due to human activity. Nevertheless this table represents, grossly, the human domination on other beings.
- With farmed animals the three layers "disagree." Their environment was built to use them, their bodies were bred for yield, and their minds are still the minds evolution gave them. A hen in a battery cage still wants to nest, to dustbathe, to open her wings. Nothing around her will allow it. That gap, between what a mind asks for, what a body can do, and what the environment permits, is friction, and friction may be where the suffering concentrates. Urban animals may have a milder version of this gap.
- Being more on the right of the domination spectrum doesn't necessary mean more suffering. More human domination can also mean less suffering if the friction between what the mind expects and what the environment input provides is ameliorated. In other words, it may be less bad to be built for a role than to be self forced into one. But it could also be that AIs, designed for mental and physical slavery, will be the most miserable creatures on earth . We just don't know enough yet, but we do know we can put our energy in creating environments, bodies, and minds that live a good life, or decide not to create them at all for ethical reasons.
- On this website, you may have come across this picture I took while working in the slaughter industry. It could be worse for AIs.
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