LessWrong (30+ Karma) “You Can’t Objectively Compare Seven Bees to One Human” by J Bostock
One thing I've been quietly festering about for a year or so is the Rethink Priorities Welfare Range Report. It gets dunked on a lot for its conclusions, and I understand why. The argument deployed by individuals such as Bentham's Bulldog boils down to: "Yes, the welfare of a single bee is worth 7-15% as much as that of a human. Oh, you wish to disagree with me? You must first read this 4500-word blogpost, and possibly one or two 3000-word follow-up blogposts". Most people who argue like this are doing so in bad faith and should just be ignored.
I'm writing this as an attempt to crystallize what I think are the serious problems with this report, and with its line of thinking in general. I'll start with
Unitarianism vs Theory-Free Models
No, not the church from Unsong. From the report:
- Utilitarianism, according to which you ought [...]
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Outline:
(00:58) Unitarianism vs Theory-Free Models
(02:05) Evolutionary Theories Mentioned in The Report
(03:39) The Fatal Problem
(05:03) My Position
The original text contained 5 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.
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First published:
July 7th, 2025
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.