Thanks, Fai. I like your ideas. Virtual Control Groups and LLM-agents are especially interesting to me right now. I want to look into the state of digital twins for various animals. This could not only obviate some animal testing, but also facilitate better translational medicine between humans, farmed animals, companion animals, and wild animals. It might also help us model levels of suffering and welfare improvement associated with interventions like novel pesticides, without the need for physical experimentation. Models would probably mostly cover individual physiology, but could also model population dynamics on farms or in the wild. Aware of anything on these fronts?

Also, your comment on pond loaches reminded me of our ~2021 discussions around animals in the long term future in space. I am planning on revisiting some of those topics.

Great write up! I especially appreciate your one-line descriptions of some of the largest AW issues. Are you aware of any kind of database where these issues are catalogued, and if so, could you point me to it? We have a long list of interventions, but having a long list of discrete welfare issues would be at least equally useful.

@Fai had some excellent and prescient ideas. Anything new come to mind, Fai? 

Hi, could you send me some information on what youre working on? I may do some venture investing in this area 

Cool idea. I assume you're tracking Innovate Animal Ag already; they might be interested in this

Hi Oli, I appreciate your thoughtful reply and share much of your sentiment. Indeed, we must protect the flame. The inner fire I have for positive impact (especially animal welfare) is equally critical, but I find it's sometimes hard to give both the attention they need. Personally, I think it would improve my art to attend to both simultaneously, but probably not improve my impact (unless I come up with some better ideas). 

I haven't yet but plan to. From what I can see in the forum and LinkedIn, the main focus is/was getting donation pledges from successful artists.

Some of my favorite ideas (some listed above):

1. Venture philanthropy fund - evergreen fund (profits get recycled to make more investments) to invest in technologies/companies  that improve animal lives (alt proteins, more humane slaughter, conservation, etc)
2. Hedge fund/venture scout model - turn high performing individuals in non-grantmaking roles into part-time grantmakers by giving them philanthropic budgets to deploy autonomously (and only continue giving them funds if they show "impact returns")
3. Longtermist Animal Welfare NGO - this seems almost completely neglected by both EA LT's and non-EA AW people but there are many long-term nightmare scenarios we are not defending against (e.g. CAFOs in space, insect farming, digital animals, animal pandemics).
4. Endow a university institute - I am not aware of any institutes dedicated to the study and promotion of animal welfare. "Animal health" is very common at the American land grant universities but in practice "animal health" means the opposite of animal welfare
5. Mass media - funding of documentaries and other media that can convince mainstream consumers to stop eating animal products or otherwise expand their moral circle
6. Asset management - Create a philanthropic private equity fund to engage in shareholder activism (such as Carl Ichan's failed bid with McDonalds)
7. Infrastructure fund for alternative proteins - there is a desperate need for plant protein extraction infrastructure and precision fermentation/cultivated meat bioprocessing infrastructure (about $60Bn needed total). Venture capital largely won't invest because they are too capital intensive and governments mostly refuse to support the sector due to agribusiness lobbying power. Loan guarantees would help too.
8. Supercharging existing EA AW orgs and Charity Entrepreneurship
9. Impact litigation to make factory farming a liability like Legal Impact for Chickens 

Happy to share additional details on anything!  These are mostly finance based as that is my background.

Unfortunately, I don't think it is true that "they would be taken better care of as a matter of course due to how scarce resources are." Our current model of animal agriculture is to operate the system incredibly efficiently overall but with no regard for the welfare of the individual animal. "Animal health" is a billion dollar industry constantly optimizing this. The animals are kept alive with drugs and careful diets but live short lives of physical and mental distress until their bodies quickly reach slaughter age. I imagine this system in space would be even more suffering-causing and unnatural than dark sheds.  Chickens that died, for example, in a space CAFO would probably just be recycled to more chicken feed. 

Hi James, I would love to read these reports. I'm considering doing a deeper dive into this. My email is ncrosser@gmail.com if you're willing to share.