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“Will Welfareans Get to Experience the Future?” by MichaelDickens

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Cross-posted from my website.

Epistemic status: This entire essay rests on two controversial premises (linear aggregation and antispeciesism) that I believe are quite robust, but I will not be able to convince anyone that they're true, so I'm not even going to try.

If welfare is important, and if the value of welfare scales something-like-linearly, and if there is nothing morally special about the human species[1], then these two things are probably also true:

  1. The best possible universe isn't filled with humans or human-like beings. It's filled with some other type of being that's much happier than humans, or has much richer experiences than humans, or otherwise experiences much more positive welfare than humans, for whatever "welfare" means. Let's call these beings Welfareans.
  2. A universe filled with Welfareans is much better than a universe filled with humanoids.

    3. (Historically, people referred to these beings as "hedonium". I dislike that term because hedonium sounds like a thing. It doesn't sound like something that matters. It's supposed to be the opposite of that—it's supposed to be the most profoundly innately valuable sentient being. So I think it's better to describe the beings as Welfareans. I [...]

    The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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    First published:

    November 2nd, 2025

    Source:

    https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/gFTHuA3LvrZC2qDgx/will-welfareans-get-to-experience-the-future

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    Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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