However, I don’t think that “Cause X is the one I care about and Organization Y is the only one working on it” to be a good reason to support Organization Y.
This addresses your point (2). Holden believes that SI is grossly inefficient at best, and actively harmful at worst (since he thinks that they might inadvertently increase AI risk). Therefore, giving money to SI would be counterproductive, and a donor would get a better return on investment in other places.
As for point (1), my impression is that Holden’s low estimate of SI’s competence is due to a combination of what he sees as wrong beliefs, as well as an insufficient capability to implement even the correct beliefs into practice. SI claims to be supremely rational, but their list of achievements is lackluster at best—which indicates a certain amount of Donning-Kruger effect that’s going on. Furthermore, SI appears to be focused on growing SI and teaching rationality workshops, as opposed to their stated mission of researching FAI theory.
Additionally, Holden indicted SI members pretty strongly (though very politely) for what I will (in a less polite fashion) label as arrogance. The prevailing attitude of SI members seems to be (according to Holden) that the rest of the world is just too irrational to comprehend their brilliant insights, and therefore the rest of the world has little to offer—and therefore, any criticism of SI’s goals or actions can be dismissed out of hand.
Holden said,
This addresses your point (2). Holden believes that SI is grossly inefficient at best, and actively harmful at worst (since he thinks that they might inadvertently increase AI risk). Therefore, giving money to SI would be counterproductive, and a donor would get a better return on investment in other places.
As for point (1), my impression is that Holden’s low estimate of SI’s competence is due to a combination of what he sees as wrong beliefs, as well as an insufficient capability to implement even the correct beliefs into practice. SI claims to be supremely rational, but their list of achievements is lackluster at best—which indicates a certain amount of Donning-Kruger effect that’s going on. Furthermore, SI appears to be focused on growing SI and teaching rationality workshops, as opposed to their stated mission of researching FAI theory.
Additionally, Holden indicted SI members pretty strongly (though very politely) for what I will (in a less polite fashion) label as arrogance. The prevailing attitude of SI members seems to be (according to Holden) that the rest of the world is just too irrational to comprehend their brilliant insights, and therefore the rest of the world has little to offer—and therefore, any criticism of SI’s goals or actions can be dismissed out of hand.
EDIT: found the right quote, duh.