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Jacy Reese Anthis

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Jacy Reese Anthis (/ˈdʒeɪsi ˈriːs/ JAY-see REESS; born December 16, 1992)[1] is an American social scientist, writer and co-founder of the Sentience Institute with Kelly Witwicki. He previously worked as a Senior Fellow at Sentience Politics, and before that at Animal Charity Evaluators as chair of the board of directors, then as a full-time researcher.

Jacy Reese Anthis
Anthis at Cypher 2023 in Bengaluru, India
Anthis at Cypher 2023 in Bengaluru, India
Born (1992-12-16) December 16, 1992 (age 31)
Huntsville, Texas, U.S.[1]
OccupationSocial scientist, writer
EducationUniversity of Texas at Austin (Bachelor of Arts and Science in Neuroscience, 2015)
Spouse
Kelly Witwicki
​
(m. 2020)​
[2]
Website
jacyanthis.com

Anthis's research focuses on effective altruism, anti-speciesism, digital minds, and plant-based and cellular agriculture. He was recognized as one of Vice's "Humans of the Year" in December 2017, along with Witwicki.[3] His book, The End of Animal Farming (2018), speculates that animal farming will end by 2100.

Education

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Anthis attended the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and Science in neuroscience in 2015.[4][5] In 2020, he enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Sociology at the University of Chicago.[5]

Career

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Before finishing his undergraduate degree, Anthis worked on the Animal Charity Evaluators (ACE) Board of Directors; he joined them as a full-time researcher after graduation.[6] ACE is an organization within the effective altruism movement that evaluates and compares various animal charities based on their cost-effectiveness and transparency, particularly those that are tackling factory farming.[7] While at ACE, Anthis published an article that addressed the issue of wild animal suffering, arguing that humans should act on behalf of wild animals to alleviate their suffering if it can be done safely and effectively.[8] His 2015 Vox article on the topic was criticized by writers who argued that humanity should not intervene or that it should instead focus on helping domestic animals.[9][10][11]

Sentience Institute

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Main article: Sentience Institute

After a year and a half at Animal Charity Evaluators, Anthis briefly worked with Sentience Politics, a project of the Effective Altruism Foundation. Sentience Politics then split into two organizations, one of which was the Sentience Institute, co-founded by Anthis and Kelly Witwicki in June 2017.[6][12]

The End of Animal Farming

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Main article: The End of Animal Farming

In The End of Animal Farming, Anthis "outlines an evidence-based roadmap to a humane, ethical, efficient food system where slaughterhouses are obsolete".[13] Anthis wrote this book from the perspective of effective altruism because there is already much content explaining the problems of animal agriculture, but he perceived a need for a book to guide the "farmed animal movement" towards its long-term goal.[14] Near the end of the book, Anthis concludes that, "if I had to speculate, I would say by 2100 all forms of animal farming will seem outdated and barbaric."[14][15][16]

Digital minds

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Anthis and the Sentience institute have more recently been conducting research on digital minds, which he defines as artificial entities with mental faculties.[17][18] He wrote an article on The Hill asking for an artificial intelligence rights movement.[19]

Selected works

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  • (2018). The End of Animal Farming: How Scientists, Entrepreneurs, and Activists Are Building an Animal-Free Food System. Boston: Beacon Press ISBN 9780807019450

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Jacy Reese. July 2021. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  2. ^ Reyes, Nina (May 9, 2020). "No Debating Their Love". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
  3. ^ Gault, Matthew (December 28, 2017). "This Think Tank Wants to End Factory Farming". Vice Motherboard.
  4. ^ Anthis, Jacy Reese (April 2020). "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). jacyanthis.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 21, 2020.
  5. ^ a b "Jacy Reese Anthis: Doctoral Student (2020)". Department of Sociology, University of Chicago. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
  6. ^ a b Lahey, Kevin; Le Roi, Ben (December 12, 2017). "Livegan" (Podcast). Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  7. ^ Engber, Daniel (August 18, 2016) "Save the Chicken", Slate
  8. ^ Anthis, Jacy (December 14, 2015). "Wild animals endure illness, injury, and starvation. We should help". Vox.
  9. ^ Gunther, Kristen (December 15, 2015). "Nature is Violent". Motherboard.
  10. ^ Matthews, Susan (December 16, 2015). "Nature Can't Exist Without Suffering—And We Can't Change That". Audubon.
  11. ^ McGrath, Lauren-Elizabeth (December 16, 2015). "Vox Fails to Mention 56 Billion Lives in Piece on Animal Suffering". Ecorazzi. Archived from the original on March 29, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  12. ^ Anthis, Kelly & Anthis, Jacy. "Introducing Sentience Institute". Sentience Institute. Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  13. ^ Spector, Nicole (March 1, 2017). "Fowl play? Subway denies its chicken is only 50% real". NBC News.
  14. ^ a b Piper, Kelsey (November 15, 2018). "We could end factory farming this century". Vox.
  15. ^ "The End of Animal Farming". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  16. ^ Robinson, Nathan L. (November 12, 2018). "Can we end animal farming forever?". Current Affairs.
  17. ^ Anthis, Jacy Reese. "Key Questions for Digital Minds". Sentience Institute. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  18. ^ Bordoloi, Pritam (October 11, 2023). "The Rise of Digital Minds". Analytics India Magazine. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  19. ^ Anthis, Jacy Reese (March 23, 2023). "We need an AI rights movement". The Hill. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
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