#38 - Prof Ng on anticipating effective altruism decades ago & how to make a much happier world

Core Philosophical Stance: Yu-Kwang Ng (Quang) advocates for "old" welfare economics and hedonistic utilitarianism, arguing that subjective well-being (happiness/pain) is the only intrinsic moral value, while all other values are merely instrumental.

• He defines happiness as a unidimensional, cardinal metric based on "just perceptible increments" of positive or negative feelings, allowing for interpersonal comparison and aggregation.
• He rejects "new" welfare economics (post-1930s) for abandoning interpersonal comparisons, viewing this as a methodological dead end that prevents meaningful policy guidance.
• He argues that behaviors like having children or pursuing non-hedonic goals are often biologically programmed for genetic survival but are "irrational" if they do not maximize net welfare.

Welfare Economics & Public Policy Implications:

• Income vs. Happiness: While material consumption is vital for survival, once a comfort threshold is reached, further income increases yield diminishing returns for happiness due to "relative competition" (positional goods) and environmental costs.
• Redistribution & Taxation: Ng supports high public spending and progressive taxation to correct for "relative competition" and environmental externalities, noting that taxes on "diamond goods" (conspicuous consumption) have low efficiency costs.
• Government Role: He contends that government spending on environmental protection, education, and research is more welfare-efficient than private consumption, which often leads to zero-sum status games and ecological degradation.
• Critique of Kant/Sen: He rejects deontological ethics (e.g., Kant's categorical imperative) and Amartya Sen's capability approach as ultimately unjustifiable without a welfare foundation, though he acknowledges Sen's Human Development Index as a useful practical proxy.

Welfare Biology & Animal Ethics:

• Sentience Criteria: Ng proposes "welfare biology," arguing that a species is capable of welfare only if it exhibits behavioral plasticity (flexibility) rather than being 100% genetically hardwired.
• Wild Animal Welfare: He hypothesizes that most wild animals suffer negative net welfare due to evolutionary pressures, creating a moral obligation to alleviate this suffering.
• Farm Animal Advocacy: Ng prioritizes improving conditions for farmed animals (specifically chickens) to achieve positive net welfare over immediate abolition, arguing that humane farming can be done at negligible cost to humans.
• Specific Practices: He campaigns against inhumane practices in Asian wet markets, such as live eel cutting, noting that economic incentives drive these practices but can be banned by regulation.

Existential Risk & Climate Change:

• Global Extinction Priority: Ng argues that preventing global extinction is the supreme moral imperative because the loss of all future welfare outweighs any consumption trade-offs.
• Discounting Future Welfare: He proposes using a probability-based discount rate rather than a pure time discount to treat current and future generations impartially, ensuring finite but weighted welfare calculations.
• Policy Urgency: He contends that even a small probability of extinction (e.g., 1-10%) justifies spending significant resources on climate change and biosecurity, as the potential loss is infinite in scope.
• Broader Risks: He supports addressing risks from nuclear war, pandemics, and AI, noting that climate mitigation offers massive co-benefits for public health even if extinction scenarios are avoided.

Technological Interventions for Happiness:

• Brain Stimulation: Ng advocates for research into direct brain stimulation of pleasure centers as a more efficient and side-effect-free method to increase happiness than pharmaceuticals.
• Genetic Engineering: He views genetic engineering as a potential long-term solution to increase the biological capacity for enjoyment, though he urges extreme caution due to irreversible risks.
• Safeguards: He suggests time-limited access (e.g., 7–10 PM) for happiness technologies to maintain social structure and prevent overuse.

Personal History & Career Evolution:

• From Revolution to Academia: Ng originally aspired to be a communist revolutionary in Malaya/Singapore to help the poor but shifted to economics and liberalism after studying economic theory and witnessing the failures of the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward via correspondence with family in China.
• Independent Development: He developed core Effective Altruism (EA) concepts (focusing on the poor, animal welfare, and long-termism) independently in Singapore in the 1990s, decades before the modern EA movement.
• Activism in China: He has spent years publishing in Chinese media to promote market reforms and human rights, leveraging his ethnic identity as an insider to influence discourse, though he notes limited direct policy impact.
• Current Focus: He encourages younger researchers to continue work on animal welfare and existential risk, hoping to extend the EA movement to Eastern contexts.

Forward-Looking Statements & Predictions:

• Economic Revival: He predicts a continued academic shift back toward cardinal utility and happiness studies, driven by the practical failures of ordinal welfare economics.
• Social Transformation: He anticipates that future technological advances (brain stimulation, genetic engineering) will fundamentally alter human welfare levels and the definition of a "good life."
• Movement Growth: He views the modern Effective Altruism movement as a highly significant, timely expansion of his long-held ideas and expresses willingness to assist in expanding it into non-Western cultures.