We are proud to announce a new and pioneering a new charity that has emerged from rigorous discussions and years of prioritisation research within our community - the World-Wide Digital Wild Worm Welfare Initiative (or for short: WWDWWWI, pronounced ‘Double-U Double-U D Double-U Double-U I’). Our mission? To extend the sphere of moral concern to a vastly overlooked category of beings: wild digital worms all over the world (and alliterating as much as possible while doing so). To give you some more information on this exciting initiative, we will walk you through a few Frequently Asked Questions below.
We chose to take a global approach given our belief that local digital wild worm lives and digital wild worm lives in other continents and dimensions are equally valuable. We also believe this initiative is critical based on the framework of neglectedness, importance, and tractability.
Neglectedness: Consider the number of terrestrial worms that exist today. A single hectare of soil can be home to as many as millions of earthworms. Scale that up to the global level and you’re looking at a population size in the quintillions (10^18), vastly outnumbering humans. Despite this, there is currently no charitable organisation specifically devoted to ensuring their well-being. Now, let's consider the digital realm. In an era where we are heading towards an increased prevalence of digital life, simulated realities, and AI, it's plausible that the number of digital worms might even surpass their earthly counterparts in digital simulations of our world. However, the field remains entirely unchartered. We are thus facing an incredibly neglected, yet significant, cause area.
Importance: We measure the importance of a cause by its scale and the severity of potential suffering involved. Taking into account the current number of terrestrial worms and the potential number of future digital worms, we are looking at an unimaginably large population of potential sufferers. As we progress technologically, it's not entirely far-fetched to imagine digital worms could possess a level of sentience. Given these factors, the scale and potential severity of suffering make this cause highly significant. Don’t let Scope Neglect bias get a hold of you!
Tractability: At first glance, the problem may seem intractable. How do we manage the welfare of such a vast and varied population, particularly when digital lifeforms are involved? It might seem intractable without the right expertise, but trust us. We have a diverse range of skill sets, including technology, AI, a Wormology background, being wild, and ethics. This gives us a true comparative advantage compared to others who did past work in this area. We believe that with our combined expertise and dedication, we can make headway in this unexplored terrain.
The next challenge we are tackling is to develop an understanding of digital worms’ through digital ethology with a focus on their 1. Basic needs, 2. Sentience levels and 3. Experiences. This research will serve as the foundation upon which we can begin to understand and address digital worm welfare.
A second focus will be expanding on our theory regarding how wild worm welfare might shed light on the Fermi Paradox. We look forward to sharing this with you soon. Other posts in the near future include our Theory of Change, the announcement of a prediction market regarding the sentience levels of digital wild worms, and we will share a post-mortem on the wager we entered with Pascal.
The WWDWWWI is groundbreaking, and we understand that it may take time for many to comprehend its significance. Despite this initiative being ahead of its time according to some, we felt morally obliged to start this now and initiate the formal launch (which takes place on April 1st, 2024). We welcome your thoughts, inputs, and participation.
Sincerely,
The WWDWWWI Team
A future to fight for
