What would it look life if governments everywhere made it a top priority to prevent the intense suffering of all sentient beings?
Risks of future suffering, including s-risks
We may be at a tipping point in the history of humanity. The values and political structures that dominate in the coming years may have far-reaching consequences. In particular, there is a risk of locked-in totalitarianism where intense suffering is perpetuated, facilitated through advanced AI that allows uncompassionate regimes to maintain their grip on power. Global cooperation on conflict resolution and addressing various sources of suffering might become impossible. Huge amounts of extreme suffering – potentially much greater than the already vast amount of existing suffering on our planet – might occur in the future, to biological beings and/or artificial sentient beings, by design or as a consequence of other goals. Risks of such astronomical suffering have been termed “s-risks”. While technical approaches to reducing such risks are needed, they may be inconsequential without the universal political will to address these risks.
Promoting compassionate governance
In contrast, the lock-in or at least long-term stabilisation of a system that seeks to minimise intense suffering and nurture thriving would be utopian. To this end, it is essential not just to promote a culture of compassion, but to promote mechanisms and incentives that lead to stable cooperation and the meeting of needs worldwide. Unaddressed needs are arguably one of the main sources of dissatisfaction and conflict in our world. Initiatives that promote concrete strategies and principles for positive systemic change are more urgent than ever. In particular, we believe that citizens’ assemblies represent an important model for cooperative decision-making at all levels of governance.
The OPIS team is currently working on a project to research and write a Guide to Compassionate Governance, which we plan to publish and widely circulate in early 2025. The guide will tap into the findings from a range of disciplines and extract some of the key principles and ideas needed to shift towards a more cooperative, needs-based global system that values the wellbeing of all sentient beings. It will contain some core ethical principles and a vision for the future, propose concrete, evidence-based approaches to better organising ourselves globally, and make a range of policy prescriptions aligned with compassionate governance and designed to address specific sources of suffering.
We also plan to draft a manifesto containing some of the guide’s key recommendations, gather a large number of signatories and promote the manifesto widely. This project will include creative campaigns and PR events to spread the ideas and facilitate uptake.
This 3-page concept note provides more of the background thinking behind this project.