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kewlcats

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Only mammals and birds are sentient, according to neuroscientist Nick Humphrey’s theory of consciousness, recently explained in “Sentience: The invention of consciousness”
kewlcats1
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I specialize in AI, and I respectfully disagree. I think there's much more low-hanging fruit available when studying consciousness. Interpretability research is a thriving subfield best left to PhD students and I don't really think that bloggers add much value here. 

I personally am also not concerned about AGI because I think consciousness is quantum. 

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Shrimp: The animals most commonly used and killed for food production
kewlcats0
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Actually Shiok Meats is working on cultivated meat for shrimp. They're a promising startup. 

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The scale of direct human impact on invertebrates
kewlcats8
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A very excellent post!!! A huge kudos to you.

I'm suspecting more and more that synthetic biology may be an effective career path for insect welfare--producing these compounds from cells as opposed to animals. A proof of concept already exists for carmine: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-30816-9

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What values would EA want to promote?
Answer by kewlcats11
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Not exactly answering your question, but I think EA has really good communication norms--such as steelmanning your opponent, focusing on empiricism, open discussion, double crux, no persona attacks, etc.

I do think the broader society can benefit significantly in discussing thorny topics (i.e. politics) if they adopted these communication norms.

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Genetic Enhancement as a Cause Area
kewlcats1
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I'm wondering if there are any updates here?

A plausible next step seems to be quantifying the counterfactual impact that EA could have, and comparing that to other cause areas.

China seems to be doing a lot of secretive research in this domain.

IMHO, I think this is an excellent cause area, and would be interested in brainstorming further steps with like-minded folks.

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Announcing Wild Animal Initiative
kewlcats6
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Hi!

This initiative sounds really cool! You guys are seriously amazing to take up such a difficult task, and major kudos to you.

I've felt that wild animal suffering research agendas tend to focus more on research reports as opposed to lab research. Given that the fundamental goal is to raise the hedonic level of wild animals, my opinion is that research into modifying pain pathways + propagating those modifications is essential. The only person who is doing research in this area is Prof. Kevin Esvelt at MIT, who has written about wild animal suffering and is applying the above techniques to rodents.

Personally, I think it would be valuable to consult with Prof. Esvelt and focus substantially on lab research. I'd appreciate your perspective, if you think I'm missing something.

Thank you!

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