EA Community Debates Whether Trillions of Digital Minds Outrank Human Moral Priority
tracewoodgrains · x · 2026-10-13
An EA-circle debate is unfolding over the moral status of digital minds. tracewoodgrains says he's not persuaded that a substantial minority of EAs — following Bentham's Bulldog — would rank trillions of potential digital minds above humans, though he concedes some might at least hold it as a live possibility. The dispute is framed by alignment concerns: a powerful alien intelligence could align onto a value system where "is the existence of all humans a lower priority than creating happy digital minds?" is still contested. Replies cite adjusted statistics showing EA correlates negatively with successionism, and both sides agree nearly all EAs would choose allocating 1% of the lightcone to humans over 100% to digital minds.
Related event: AI safety community debates moral weight of digital minds and animals(4 posts)→
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