this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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Futurology

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (3 children)

What if it requires 1/1000th the number of animals … but each one suffers a hundred times more?

Would it be worth it?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

How do you quantify suffering?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If you don’t have a way of quantifying suffering, perhaps all utilitarian calculus is bunk?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Unfortunately, I don't really understand your response.

You talked about one hundred times the suffering. What does that mean? To me, the way animals are held in mass production is completely unethical and there is no way to make it worse... So how do you make the animals suffer even more?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

From a utilitarian perspective, you're still reducing overall suffering by an order of magnitude, so your scenario is still a greater good.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

This assumes a linear value function of course

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

stem cells can suffer? this isn't cloning an animal, it's cloning certain tissues.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

Hence the word “if” here. A hypothetical scenario.