Suffering
This note is about suffering as cause by humans and in nature.
Reproductive strategies evolve to enable successful transmission of genes, not to maximize happiness, thriving or wellbeing.
Horta, Oscar. ‘Animal Suffering in Nature: The Case for Intervention’. Environmental Ethics 39, no. 3 (2017): 261–79. https://doi.org/10/gddsm8.
"People still don't get how astounding Darwinism is. People think what shocked everybody was that Charles Darwin seemed to be saying we had descended from apes. Well, yes, that's what the public and the cartoonists believe. But actually, what was shocking about it was that it said "all life is struggle." It's necessary for our survival that someone is going to suffer at our expense. With most animals, there are runts who are discarded, and nature just tries again in its merciless, relentless, remorseless way. The discovery of that was profoundly shattering to the late 19th century and early 20th century." (Stephen Fry)
Evolution
Evolution is not a process to be glorified. It is driven by chance . It is merciless and sacrifices individuals. It invented positive and negative feelings to motivate behaviour. Humans and others are on a hedonic treadmill that encourages them to be as happy without making it possible. Cf. Metzinger's biological ego machines.
Existence
Humans have what Metzinger calls 'existence bias', a preference to persist even in the face of suffering.
Some argue that it is better not to exist at all, cf. antinatalism
Benatar, David. Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Suffering in Artificial Systems
Metzinger, Thomas. ‘Artificial Suffering: An Argument for a Global Moratorium on Synthetic Phenomenology’. Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness 08, no. 01 (2021): 43–66. https://doi.org/10/gmd4td.
Backlinks