Why I'm Optimistic for the Animals and the Future

There are many reasons I’m optimistic about the future for humans and animals.

Talking about animal rights and taking action for animals is a recent phenomenon

The fact that we talk about animal rights and how to take action for animals is a huge milestone and central to my belief in a better future. Our society has sufficiently advanced to the point where we can consider and plan change around our treatment of animals. Historically, we did not possess the ability to consider the suffering of animals due to society needing to solve more pressing issues for humans, such as how to get food, make clothing, shelter from weather, or prevent diseases. Since modern society has solved many of those problems, we are free to consider the next set of problems which includes, among other issues, our relationship with animals.

Jainism (started in 5-6th BCE) or vegetarian Buddhism (6 BCE) might seem like counterpoints, but those religious philosophies have remained a minority even within their own regions. And given homo sapiens have been around for over 300,000 years, the beginnings of Jainism, Buddhism, or any other ethical vegetarianism are minor on that time scale. The word “vegan” was coined only very recently in 1944. Many people – both vegan and non – still struggle with what veganism means.

Demanding justice for animals is a new phenomenon.

Today we consider our treatment of animals as a moral blind spot in the past. We simply did not and could not see it. Now we can not only see the moral blind spot, but we can take action against it such as passing laws to protect animals or organizing with animal rights groups.

This is true of all social progress. As society became wealthier, we worried less about meeting our mundane living requirements (food, shelter, etc.) and we could start to explore moral concepts beyond our survival. In fact, I previously argued that technology is what allows social progress.

A pessimistic view of the future can only be held by those who don’t read history

Historically, humans. if they lived past childbirth, spent most of their waking hours struggling to survive. The richest of kings were not exempt from the possibility of dying from the common cold. Angela Davis’s Autobiography depicts the treatment of Black people in the United States during the 1950s and 60s as shockingly brutal by today’s standards (which, to be clear, are still appalling). Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild shows us that 200 years ago, slavery was considered not only natural but good. Women were property as well in the recent past.

Filipino girl was tied down and put on display because she was considered an exotic animal in 1905, just a few generations ago.

Enlightenment Now by Stephen Pinker details how life expectancy has risen dramatically, extreme poverty has plummeted, rates of violent conflict have fallen, and a host of other calamities have improved. In short, the past is always worse than the present (at least for humans).

It is all too easy to get wrapped up in the problems of today and lose the historical perspective. Headlines from news reports are mostly negative because that drives views. Just because the media reports lots of negativity does not mean the overall state of society is worse than in our past. Reading history, especially history of other countries well into the past and how daily life was for our ancestors, helps to broaden one’s view. Learning history forces one to look past the potential temporary setbacks in our current world.

Pessimism is a particular belief about the future. Will the future be better for everyone? A pessimist would say “no”. Things cannot get better. All progress is a sham.

I subscribe to David Deutsch’s definition of optimism: “Optimism is the theory that all our failures - all evils - are due to insufficient knowledge.” This assumes knowledge can be gained and then used to solve problems. What we lack then for a better future is more knowledge, be it science, technology, humanities, philosophy, and the adoption of that knowledge. A pessimist would believe we cannot gain knowledge or use that knowledge to solve problems or make life better with the application of that knowledge. A pessimist does not believe any progress is possible.

Despite news headlines, influencers, and even expert opinions, predicting the future is hard. We all hold a healthy amount of skepticism when someone predicts the weather for next week, stock market movements, sports outcomes, or tells us how some new technology will change the world. So why then should we put our trust and emotional energy in someone that claims this world can’t be better, especially when considering their prediction is for 20+ years into the future?

“The End is Near” is a cry we hear every year, yet here we are.

They say: “War is inevitable. Death is inevitable. Racism, sexism, and climate change is inevitable. Mass cruelty towards animals is inevitable.” These are beliefs about the future, not what is guaranteed to happen. They believe humanity is powerless, the future is deterministic, and future predictions always spell doom. But it does not have to be that way.

Reconsidering human responsibility

We are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction. A mass extinction is when there is rapid biodiversity loss. The sixth differs from the first five in that the first five happened naturally by Mother Nature and humans are causing the sixth. Many people use this fact to point out that humans are like a virus or cancer, out of control and killing all life.

Yet, no one seems to condemn Mother Nature for causing the first five. Too few want to tell Mother Nature that if she was a real mother, she’d be in prison for mass murder, starvation, neglect, and abandonment. Mother Nature is no idol. Her harsh rules of evolution and survival of the fittest are only now being exposed and understood by humans. Humans, while a product of nature, are capable of understanding nature, and more importantly, are able to remove the negative aspects of it.

So I have a new realization: we should temper our self-criticism for causing the sixth mass extinction because we are the only force in nature working to stop a seventh from ever happening. As we uncover the root cause of suffering in the world (for all sentient beings), invent technology to address suffering, and organize society around a better life for all, we will conquer Mother Nature by removing suffering from her equation of life.

This is not macho arrogance. This is not human exceptionalism. This is the path we have been traveling down with science, technology, and the pursuit of knowledge. After all, the purpose of science is to be curious, to alter our existence, and to make life better.

This also is not an excuse for causing the sixth mass extinction. Causing suffering is wrong, but the fact we can even talk about such events and formulate plans to tackle the issue is proof we are doing more than what Mother Nature did for the first five mass extinctions. If anything, the creation of humans might be the only way to correct Mother Nature and her inability to learn from her past behavior.

Progress cannot come fast enough

In the ~4 billion years of life existing, no one has possessed the ability to reflect on suffering and do something about it. We have knowledge now showing the sentience of animals and the ability to end much of their suffering.

My biggest fear is if we do not solve the problem of suffering before killing ourselves (be it climate change, nuclear war, bioweapons, etc.) then the cycle of suffering will only continue. If humans are eradicated, but life starts to evolve again with sentient creatures, then suffering will exist naturally until a sufficiently developed consciousness intervenes that is capable of ending suffering.

We must break this cycle

Right now, we are that sufficiently developed consciousness capable of ending suffering. In fact, the end of suffering has never been closer in the history of life.