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The shrimp welfare project

(benthams.substack.com)
81 points 0xDEAFBEAD | 3 comments | 18 Nov 24 14:44 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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thinkingtoilet ◴[18 Nov 24 15:10 UTC] No.42172998[source]▶
I love articles like this that challenge the status quo of morality. I find my self asking the question, "Would I rather save a billion shrimp or one human?" and I honestly think I'm siding on the human. I'm not saying that answer is "correct". It's always good to think about these things and the point the author makes about shrimp being a test of our morality because they're so different is a good one.
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1. BenthamsBulldog ◴[18 Nov 24 18:55 UTC] No.42175641[source]▶
Thanks for the kind words! I agree lots of people would value a human more than any number of shrimp. Now, in the article, I'm talking about which is worse--extreme suffering for one human or extreme suffering for millions of shrimp. So then the question is: can the common sense verdict be defended? What about shrimp is it that makes it so that their pain is of negligible importance compared to humans? Sure they aren't smart, but being dumb doesn't seem to make your pain less bad (hurting babies and mentally disabled people is still very very bad).
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2. theonething ◴[18 Nov 24 19:15 UTC] No.42175842[source]▶
For babies and mentally disabled people, we absolutely know beyond any doubt that they are capable of feeling pain, intense, blood curdling pain.

I don't think we can say the same of shrimp.

That's why humane killing of cattle (with piston guns to the head) is widely practiced, but nothing of the sort for crabs, oysters, etc. We know for sure cattle feel pain so we do something about it.

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3. BenthamsBulldog ◴[19 Nov 24 00:46 UTC] No.42178994[source]▶
Sure but if we're not sure then the possible infliction of huge amounts of horrendous suffering on trillions of them is quite serious. If there's even a 5% chance that shrimp feel pain as intensely as humans, the SWP is an excellent bet.