The evolutionary process involved the suffering of quadrillions of sentient beings over millions of years. I argue that when we take this into account, then it is likely that when the first humans appeared, the world was already at an enormous axiological deficit, and that even on favorable assumptions about humanity, it is doubtful that we have overturned this deficit or ever will. Even if there’s no such deficit or we can overturn it, it remains the case that everything of value associated with humanity was made possible by our evolutionary history and all that animal suffering. It can seem indecent to regard all that past suffering as having been worth it simply because it was a causal precondition for our existence. But when we consider the realistic alternatives to the way evolution in fact unfolded, there is nevertheless a conditional case for regarding past sentient suffering as a kind of necessary evil.

进化过程涉及数百万年的千亿众生的苦难。我认为，当我们考虑到这一点时，很可能当第一批人类出现时，世界已经处于巨大的价值论缺陷中，即使在对人类有利的假设下，我们是否已经推翻了这一缺陷或永远都会。即使没有这样的缺陷，或者我们可以推翻它，但与人类相关的一切有价值的东西都是通过我们的进化历史和所有动物的苦难而成为可能的。仅仅因为它是我们存在的因果前提，就认为过去所有的苦难都值得，这似乎是不雅的。但是当我们考虑进化实际上展开方式的现实替代方案时，