Dr Walter Veit: The Evolution of Sentience and Its Implications for Altruists

This event is a collaboration between EA Oxford and the Oxford Vegan Society.

Which animals are capable of suffering? And if animals as different as insects, birds, fish, and pigs suffer, how can we assess how much they suffer in comparison to each other? The goal of this talk, by Walter Veit - a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of Reading - is to offer an explanation for the evolutionary origins of consciousness.

According to the thesis Dr Veit will advance, the evolution of sentience can be understood as a response to the explosion of complexity that occurred over 500 million years ago during the Cambrian, allowing agents to track what matters to them and make the right decisions at the right time. It is in this context that interests and motivations are born, giving rise to a new form of animal agency. This framework will allow us not only to determine which animals are capable of suffering, but also to offer us a reasonable way to allow for interspecies comparisons of welfare.