A lesson from the past
In the 1930s, factory farming appeared: farms with thousands of animals packed in confinement. It hugely multiplied the number of animals being exploited and the suffering of each one. At the start of the 20th century, almost nobody imagined something like this would happen.
Two thought experiments
1. Going back in time. Imagine you could travel back in time and warn the animal advocates of 1900 that something terrible was about to appear. Wouldn't it be important for them to get ready?
2. A visitor from the future. Now imagine someone from the future came to warn us that practices are coming that will be so terrible they'd make factory farming look like a tiny grain of sand by comparison.
The question is: could we be in the same position today as the animal advocates of 1900, without realizing what might be coming?
What s-risks are
This volume focuses on suffering, but the same idea would apply to other harms, like deaths.
Examples of risks
- spreading factory farming to more countries and species;
- exploiting insects on a gigantic scale;
- creating digital minds that can feel, with no protection at all;
- taking ecosystems full of suffering to other planets.
In short
- Factory farming showed that suffering can multiply suddenly.
- S-risks are risks of gigantic suffering in the future.
- Thinking about them today can help prevent them.