Bob Fischer

This is the second post in the Moral Weight Project Sequence. The aim of the sequence is to provide an overview of the research that Rethink Priorities conducted between May 2021 and October 2022 on interspecific cause prioritization—i.e. making resource allocation decisions across species. The aim of this post is to provide an overview of the Welfare Range Table, which records the results of a literature review covering over 90 empirical traits across 11 farmed species.

This post is the first in the Moral Weight Project Sequence. The aim of the sequence is to provide an overview of the research that Rethink Priorities conducted between May 2021 and October 2022 on interspecific cause prioritization—i.e., making resource allocation decisions across species. The aim of this post is to introduce the project and explain how EAs could use its results.

This is the eighth post in the Moral Weight Project Sequence, which provides an overview of the research Rethink Priorities conducted between May 2021 and October 2022 on making resource allocation decisions across species. In this post, Senior Research Manager Bob Fischer briefly recaps the research team’s understanding of welfare ranges and their proposed way of using them. The post also summarizes the methodology and responds to some questions and objections.

This post is the sixth installment in the Worldview Investigation Team’s Charitable Resource Allocation Frameworks and Tools (CRAFT) Sequence. Here, the team introduces the Moral Parliament Tool, which models ways an agent can make decisions about how to allocate goods in light of normative uncertainty.

This post is the second installment in the Worldview Investigation Team’s Charitable Resource Allocation Frameworks and Tools (CRAFT) Sequence. Here, the team introduces the Portfolio Builder—an interactive tool designed to help donors optimize their philanthropic giving portfolios by evaluating the cost-effectiveness of different cause areas.

This post is the seventh installment in the Worldview Investigation Team’s Charitable Resource Allocation Frameworks and Tools (CRAFT) Sequence. Here, the researchers explain how the Moral Parliament tool can help address uncertainty.

Executive Summary In this post, we explore why final spending allocations might depart from proportionality over worldviews, even if we assume traditional forms of worldview diversification. We discuss why it…

This is the ninth post in the Moral Weight Project Sequence, which provides an overview of the research Rethink Priorities conducted between May 2021 and October 2022 on making resource allocation decisions across species. The goal of this post is to help animal welfare grantmakers assess the relative value of improvements to the lives of some commercially-important insects.

This is the sixth post in the Worldview Investigations Team’s sequence of posts—Causes and uncertainty: Rethinking value in expectation (CURVE). This report considers a time of perils-based case for prioritizing existential risk mitigation.

Rethink Priorities’ Worldview Investigations Team is sharing research agendas that provide overviews of some key research areas as well as projects in those areas that we would be keen to…

The research agenda explores critical philosophical and empirical questions about the potential welfare and moral status of digital minds, focusing on understanding when and how artificial intelligence systems might deserve ethical consideration.

Rethink Priorities’ Worldview Investigations Team is sharing research agendas that provide overviews of some key research areas as well as projects in those areas that we would be keen to pursue. This is the last of three such agendas posted in November 2024. While we have flagged specific projects we’d like to work on, these are not exhaustive. We would recommend that prospective donors reach out directly to discuss what might make the most sense for us to focus on.