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AI Use Note: Main body text entirely human written. Claude (Opus 4.8) helped develop models of animal life histories in the appendix.
Cross-posted from Good Structures.
Executive Summary
* Animal advocates sometimes make claims like “there are X of this animal...
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This is a crosspost from the new Animal Welfare Alignment Newsletter by Anima International. You can subscribe on Substack if you are interested in following these efforts. Audio reading also available on Substack.
The goals of this post are to:
1. Raise a question I see as crucially important to the goal of aligning AI to animal welfare...
“How long have you been v*g*n?”
This is one of the most common icebreakers at animal protection events. It’s a baseline assumption, and it mostly holds true: if you’re out advocating for animals not to be tortured or abused, realistically these days you are v**n, or close. And it makes for good conversation. It seems fairly safe to assume when you meet strangers.
But this assumption is hurting the movement in a way which we don’t always notice: someone new comes into the sp...
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Nutrition science is actually doing just fine (quality research has been consistent and stood the test of time) and pervasive distrust is due to a massive disinformation compaign by beef industry. Evidence? See youtube.com/@PlantChompers
Don't be put off by the name - watch any video and see Chris Macaskill's love of reference checking, breaking down complex concepts, taking a wider perspective on nutrition history,and entertaining story telling. I used to think the research was all shoddy too - now I see exactly where that comes from, and the harm that uncautios skepticism can bring.