Relationship Between a Seed and a Fruit That Describes the Conmplex Attributes

Evolution optimizes for reproductive success rather than individual well-being. The result, as economist Yew-Kwang Ng argues in his Towards Welfare Biology: Evolutionary Economics of Animal Consciousness and Suffering, is a world in which most species have far more offspring than will survive to maturity (sometimes laying thousands or millions of eggs per season). 'A large Australian Garden Orb Weaver Spider. It has captured a bee in its web and has spun it into a coccoon. And even for the survivors, life involves a constant struggle to find enough food, avoid predators, and overcome sickness and injury for a few brief years (or months) before death comes at the jaws of a predator or the grip of a parasite. Pain is a powerful motivational tool, and evolution has no qualms about using it to maximum effect.

The human species finds itself in a rare position among life on earth and perhaps in the cosmos more broadly. First, we experience the emotional ups and downs, pains and pleasures that accompany sentient animal life generally. We too are byproducts of evolution.

Secondly, humans have a capacity for empathy -- for modeling the cognitive and emotional states of other organisms and then responding as though we were experiencing those thoughts and feelings ourselves. While this trait is shared by other species, it does not appear to be an inevitable result of the evolutionary process and is probably quite rare among life throughout the universe. (It seems that more advanced intelligences could better separate their intentional stance modeling systems from their self-preservation and motivation systems, so that understanding what another agent will do wouldn't bleed over into caring about how that agent feels as it does for humans.)

I think we have an obligation to exercise our rare position in the history of life to do the best we can in replacing the consequences of evolution's singular focus on reproductive survival of species with a humane approach that values...