A preliminary estimate, and a request for better ones.
Summary
I believe the standard literature estimates for the number of DALYs attributable to a case of stunting are too low, largely because they don’t account for the long term effects. This means that childhood nutritional interventions that reduce the prevalence of stunting may be substantially more cost-effective than previously believed.
Epistemic status
Exploratory and back-o...
Note: This post was crossposted from Planned Obsolescence by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post.
Subtitle: It’s a major warning shot, and might be the last one we get
All opinions are my personal view, and don’t represent my employer or fellow investigators.
This week, METR and Redwood Research published...
Overview
This post summarizes a new preprint on alternative proteins from the Humane and Sustainable Food Lab: New alternatives, same orders. We investigated 19...
Researchers simulate an entire fly brain on a laptop. Is a human brain next?
What is the implication of this for EA thinking? Does the fly that purely exists in the computer warrant moral consideration, and could we increase the overall welfare of the world by making millions of these simulations with ideal fruit-fly conditions?
They fully copied the brain of the fly, so from my understanding it should also feel pleasure and pain in theory, I think this poses a real conundrum for EA morality.
I lean towards a yes butI am uncertain because I don't know how the stimuli is fed and I would imagine that the simulated brain, unlike an embodied fruit fly, isn't perpetually processing information and taking actions. If the latter is true and if it replaces the need for ... processing ... billions of life fruit flies in labs worldwide, seems like a huge animal welfare win to me.EDIT: Eon, the company behind this development published a blog post explaining their research, and after reading it, I am much less confident in my lean. This doesn't seem to be a whole fly brain emulation / a full copy:
Source: How the Eon Team Produced a Virtual Embodied Fly
You're right that it isn't a WBE. Also, incentives: