Upvoting this post even though it doesn't criticize EA. :-)

Looking at your charts, I find it really interesting to see the trend in animal welfare posts over time. As you summarize it: "The percentage of posts on animal welfare peaked in 2018-19 and has since decreased somewhat."

I've heard concerns from other animal-focused EAs that the EA movement feels like it is starting to de-emphasize animals.  And that worried me. But these charts make me feel better.

Your analysis does validates peoples'  perception that the EA movement feels like it has recently started focusing less on animals. Because your analysis suggests the movement probably has been focusing less on animals ever since the 2019 peak. So that shows that people aren't crazy to feel like something is changing in EA. :-)

But at the same time, your analysis suggests that the decrease in focus on animals is probably just a return to the norm. So there's probably no real risk that this trend will eventually lead to EA forgetting about animals altogether! Therefore, by showing the big picture, your post is reassuring.

Awwwwww!!!!!

You should!!!

Dear James III,

Thank you so much!

And  thank  you so  much for doing that research  to begin with! I would love to see the  rest of  it, and I'm sure  other EA Forum readers would too! Your point  about artificial sentience is really concerning.

I really appreciate you researching and  analyzing all this,  and sharing  it.

Sincerely,

Alene

Thank you so much for this thoughtful, detailed, and concerning post. 

Thank you so much! I missed that post! 

Fai's post is way more educated, more specific, and better written than my post.  I'm really glad Fai wrote that. And I'm even more worried, now, about future animals.

It stinks to hear that this is fully neglected. I hope that changes, thanks to analyses like Fai's!

This is SUPER interesting. And it's amazing that you have put so much thought into this exact issue!

Also, I love that everybody who responded is named James! :-) 

Dear James,

Thank you so much for this thoughtful response!

It is wonderful to know that people are having conversations about these issues. 

You make a really great point about the risk of AGI locking in humans' current attitude towards animals. That is super scary. 

Sincerely,

Alene

This podcast is the #1 thing I’ve heard to date that does the best job of explaining EA to someone outside of the movement. I’m going to share this show with people in the future.