Suffering risk
A suffering risk (or s-risk) is a potential future with the amount of intense suffering vastly exceeding the amount of suffering that has ever occurred on Earth.[1]
Potential sources of s-risks that have been proposed include artificial sentience, wild-animal suffering beyond Earth[2], and powerful malevolent agents[3][4]. Space colonisation often is considered as a risk multiplier of a suffering risk coming about.[5][2] However, space colonization may reduce suffering instead if there is extraterrestrial sentience that the explorers decide to systematically help.[6]
Organizations that explicitly work on reducing s-risks include the Center on Long-Term Risk and the Center for Reducing Suffering.
Reducing s-risks
Strategies
Several strategies for reducing s-risks have been proposed. One of them is expanding humanity’s moral circle together with raising concern for suffering.[7][8] This may be the most robust option, as “the values of future decision-makers are arguably the most fundamental determinant of how the future will go, which suggests that improving those values is a good lever”.[7]
This strategy of influencing future values can be viewed as a part of the broader proposed strategy of capacity building: capacity in a form of a "community interested in and knowledgeable about suffering reduction".[7]
Another proposed strategy for reducing s-risks is improving politics and governance. The idea is that this could help society avoid harmful political and social dynamics, create better policies, and improve cooperation more generally[9]. More specific examples of this strategy include screening out malevolent agents who run for public office[3], preventing excessive polarization, space governance[10], anti-totalitarian checks and balances, improving standards of political debate, and voting reform.[7]
Given that s-risk is a new and unexplored area of research, researching s-risks may be a robust way to reduce s-risks. Such research could uncover currently unknown s-risks and risk factors[5] and effective ways of reducing them. (Expanding the knowledge of how to best reduce suffering can be viewed as another aspect of capacity building.)[9][7]
See also
External links
- David Pearce's answer to What does David Pearce think about S-risks (suffering risks)? on Quora
References
- ↑ Althaus, D. & Gloor, L. (2016). Reducing Risks of Astronomical Suffering: A Neglected Priority
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tomasik, B. (2014/2018). Will Space Colonization Multiply Wild-Animal Suffering?
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Baumann, T. (2020). Reducing long-term risks from malevolent actors
- ↑ Baumann, T. (2017). A typology of s-risks
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Baumann, T. (2019). Risk factors for s-risks
- ↑ Pearce, D. (2014). High-tech Jainism
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Baumann, T. (2021). How can we reduce s-risks?
- ↑ Vinding, M. (2018). Moral Circle Expansion Might Increase Future Suffering
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Vinding, M. (2020). Suffering-Focused Ethics: Defense and Implications, 14.5
- ↑ Baumann, T. (2020). Space governance is important, tractable and neglected