If animals continue to exist in a post-AGI world, animal suffering will not persist
I don't see a strong signal from the past century one way or another. Looking at non-human animals today, many animals live remarkably better lives. Yet many others live industrialized nightmarish lives unimaginable 100 years ago.
Humans (as a proxy for apex intelligence) do seem to care more about animal welfare than ever before, with laws and regulations gaining ever increasing sophistication. But technological sophistication seems to allow for both better lives on the top end and more extreme suffering on the bottom. The variance seems to have increased without a clear change to the average or median, at least to my rough eye.
Extrapolating into the future, I have no reason to predict a change.
I don't see a strong signal from the past century one way or another. Looking at non-human animals today, many animals live remarkably better lives. Yet many others live industrialized nightmarish lives unimaginable 100 years ago.
Humans (as a proxy for apex intelligence) do seem to care more about animal welfare than ever before, with laws and regulations gaining ever increasing sophistication. But technological sophistication seems to allow for both better lives on the top end and more extreme suffering on the bottom. The variance seems to have increased without a clear change to the average or median, at least to my rough eye.
Extrapolating into the future, I have no reason to predict a change.