“Impartialist Sentientism and Existential Anxiety about Moral Circle Explosion” by Rafael Ruiz

Background: I'm currently writing a PhD in moral philosophy on the topic of moral progress and moral circle expansion (you can read a bit about it here and here). I recently was at three EA-related conferences: EA Global London 2024, a workshop on AI, Animals, and Digital Minds at the London School of Economics, and the Oxford Workshop on Global Priorities Research. Particularly this year, I learned a lot and was mostly shaken up by the topics of invertebrate welfare and AI sentience, which are the focus of this post. I warn you, the ethics are going to get weird. Introduction. This is post is a combination of academic philosophy and a more personal reflection on the anxious, dizzying existential crisis I'm facing recently, due to the weight of suffering that I believe might be contained in the universe, which I believe is morally and overwhelmingly important, and for [...] ---Outline:(00:46) Introduction.(03:04) Impartialist Sentientism.(08:35) You can get very similar conclusions without such strong premises.(15:27) You cant ignore invertebrate and AI sentience.(15:56) Invertebrate Sentience.(21:58) AI Sentience.(26:16) Overall summary:(26:22) Are longtermists still thinking to small? Aliens, Impartiality, and The Point of View of the Universe.(27:48) Existential Anxiety - Help! My train to crazy town has no brakes!(29:07) Moral alienation.(30:23) Moral anxiety.(31:40) Stops I fear: Blowing Up The Universe, Extreme Moral Offsetting, Tiling the Universe with Hedonium, Pascals Mugging, Infinite Ethics.(35:28) Some good news?(38:49) What should I do? Giving money, effort, work, time, across cause areas.(42:00) Stepping back and strategizing. Some actionable points.(43:53) Conclusion.(44:49) Some key readings on the topic.--- First published: June 22nd, 2024 Source: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/nLpABXKj64jJGvHWQ/impartialist-sentientism-and-existential-anxiety-about-moral --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.