I also contend that it’s the more epistemically humble position, because you’re not saying that it’s for sure that a pivotal act should be performed, but just that it’s quite plausible given the specifics of the current world situation
The thing I’d say in favor of this position is that I think it better fits the evidence. I think the problem with the opposing view is that it’s wrong, not that it’s more confident. E.g., if I learned that Nate assigns probability .9 to “a pivotal act is necessary” (for some operationalization of “necessary”) while Critch assigns probability .2 to “a pivotal act is necessary”, I wouldn’t go “ah, Critch is being more reasonable, since his probability is closer to .5″.
I agree with the rest of what you said, and I think this is a good way of framing the issue.
I’d add that I think discussion of this topic gets somewhat distorted by the fact that many people naturally track social consensus, and try to say the words they think will have the best influence on this consensus, rather than blurting out their relevant beliefs.
Many people are looking for a signal that stuff like this is OK to say in polite society, or many others are staking out a position “the case for this makes sense intellectually but there’s no way it will ever attract enough support, so I’ll preemptively oppose it in order to make my other arguments more politically acceptable”. (The latter, unfortunately, being a strategy that can serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy.)
The thing I’d say in favor of this position is that I think it better fits the evidence. I think the problem with the opposing view is that it’s wrong, not that it’s more confident. E.g., if I learned that Nate assigns probability .9 to “a pivotal act is necessary” (for some operationalization of “necessary”) while Critch assigns probability .2 to “a pivotal act is necessary”, I wouldn’t go “ah, Critch is being more reasonable, since his probability is closer to .5″.
I agree with the rest of what you said, and I think this is a good way of framing the issue.
I’d add that I think discussion of this topic gets somewhat distorted by the fact that many people naturally track social consensus, and try to say the words they think will have the best influence on this consensus, rather than blurting out their relevant beliefs.
Many people are looking for a signal that stuff like this is OK to say in polite society, or many others are staking out a position “the case for this makes sense intellectually but there’s no way it will ever attract enough support, so I’ll preemptively oppose it in order to make my other arguments more politically acceptable”. (The latter, unfortunately, being a strategy that can serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy.)