On reflection I think I misused the word altruism. I’m an egoist, but my actions towards others may seem altruistic in cases where those others are optimizing for futures I prefer. For example, Aubrey de Grey is better at optimizing for a future in which I don’t die than I am, so I prefer to give him some of my optimization power.
OK, so what you’re trying to say is “I, personally, act ‘altruistic’ towards people who are working on x-risk, and don’t buy the concept of being ‘altruistic’ towards anyone else.” Is that right? I was reading it as “a given person’s behaviour can’t be called altruistic unless they are working on x-risk.”
Can you clarify what you mean by this?
On reflection I think I misused the word altruism. I’m an egoist, but my actions towards others may seem altruistic in cases where those others are optimizing for futures I prefer. For example, Aubrey de Grey is better at optimizing for a future in which I don’t die than I am, so I prefer to give him some of my optimization power.
OK, so what you’re trying to say is “I, personally, act ‘altruistic’ towards people who are working on x-risk, and don’t buy the concept of being ‘altruistic’ towards anyone else.” Is that right? I was reading it as “a given person’s behaviour can’t be called altruistic unless they are working on x-risk.”
Yes.