Suffering risks

Suffering risks, known as s-risks for short, are future events with the potential capacity to produce an astronomical amount of suffering.^[1] These events may generate more suffering than has ever existed on Earth, in the entirety of its existence.^[2] Sources of possible s-risks include embodied artificial intelligence^[3] and superintelligence,^[1] as well as space colonization, which could potentially lead to "constant and catastrophic wars"^[4] and an immense increase in wild animal suffering by introducing wild animals, who "generally lead short, miserable lives full of sometimes the most brutal suffering", to other planets, either intentionally, or inadvertently.^[2]

References[]

^ ^a ^b Sotala, Kaj; Gloor, Lukas (2017-12-27). "Superintelligence As a Cause or Cure For Risks of Astronomical Suffering". Informatica. 41 (4). ISSN 1854-3871.
^ ^a ^b Kovic, Marko (2021-02-01). "Risks of space colonization". Futures. 126: 102638. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2020.102638. ISSN 0016-3287. S2CID 230597480.
^ Umbrello, Steven; Sorgner, Stefan Lorenz (June 2019). "Nonconscious Cognitive Suffering: Considering Suffering Risks of Embodied Artificial Intelligence". Philosophies. 4 (2): 24. doi:10.3390/philosophies4020024.
^ Torres, Phil (2018-06-01). "Space colonization and suffering risks: Reassessing the "maxipok rule"". Futures. 100: 74–85. doi:10.1016/j.futures.2018.04.008. ISSN 0016-3287. S2CID 149794325.

v t Effective altruism
Concepts	Charity assessment Demandingness objection Disability-adjusted life year Earning to give Equal consideration of interests Longtermism Marginal utility Quality-adjusted life year Utilitarianism Venture philanthropy
Key figures	Sam Bankman-Fried Liv Boeree Nick Bostrom Hilary Greaves Holden Karnofsky William MacAskill Dustin Moskovitz Yew-Kwang Ng Toby Ord Derek Parfit Peter Singer Cari Tuna
Organizations	80,000 Hours Against Malaria Foundation All-Party Parliamentary Group for Future Generations Animal Charity Evaluators Animal Ethics Center for High Impact Philanthropy Centre for the Study of Existential Risk Deworm the World Initiative Faunalytics Fistula Foundation Future of Humanity Institute Future of Life Institute Founders Pledge GiveDirectly GiveWell Giving What We Can Good Food Fund The Good Food Institute Good Ventures The Humane League Mercy for Animals Machine Intelligence Research Institute Malaria Consortium Nuclear Threat Initiative Open Philanthropy Raising for Effective Giving Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Sentience Institute Wild Animal Initiative
Focus areas	Aid effectiveness Biotechnology risk Climate change Cultured meat Disease burden Economic stability Existential risk from artificial general intelligence Global catastrophic risk Global health Global poverty Immigration reform Intensive animal farming Land use reform Life extension Malaria prevention Mass deworming Neglected tropical diseases Suffering risks Wild animal suffering
Literature	Doing Good Better The End of Animal Farming Famine, Affluence, and Morality The Life You Can Save Living High and Letting Die The Most Good You Can Do Practical Ethics The Precipice
Events	Effective Altruism Global

v t Existential risk from artificial intelligence
Concepts	Accelerating change AI box AI takeover Control problem Existential risk from artificial general intelligence Friendly artificial intelligence Instrumental convergence Intelligence explosion Machine ethics Superintelligence Technological singularity
Organizations	Allen Institute for AI Center for Applied Rationality Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence Centre for the Study of Existential Risk DeepMind Foundational Questions Institute Future of Humanity Institute Future of Life Institute Humanity+ Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence Machine Intelligence Research Institute OpenAI
People	Scott Alexander Nick Bostrom Eric Drexler Sam Harris Stephen Hawking Bill Hibbard Bill Joy Elon Musk Steve Omohundro Huw Price Martin Rees Stuart J. Russell Jaan Tallinn Max Tegmark Frank Wilczek Roman Yampolskiy Andrew Yang Eliezer Yudkowsky
Other	Artificial intelligence as a global catastrophic risk Controversies and dangers of artificial general intelligence Ethics of artificial intelligence Suffering risks Human Compatible Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence Our Final Invention The Precipice Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies Do You Trust This Computer?
Category

Suffering risks

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