That does not sound like a good goal. It’s too ambiguous and lofty. I realize there are a lot of smart folks associated with the concept of EA but this goal ( good or not) seems more aligned with the White Savior complex with a great deal of humility lacking. We should at least be aware of our limitations: we lack the basic knowledge and tools to even predict let alone change the “world” in the next two years let alone fool ourselves into thinking that “we” (and I mean the self elected saviors in the EA group) are the right people to do it.
It was kinda cool to see the mosquito net era; but this new era of McAskill et al is frankly intellectually dishonest and disgusting almost like the imperial / colonial style. The ftx fuckery is an unrelated problem but it beautifully drills a giant hole into this whole long termism 80000 hours AI savior stuff. The private texts between him and Elon really explains how deep the connections are to basically twist the meaning of EA to push whatever power play/PR is needed.
Thanks for the pointers, I enjoy reading them even though I disagree with the premise. One important criticism is that “donating to experts and people on the ground” seems probably better than “let’s embed and try to be experts in things we have no business to be in”.
To close my rant here as a nobody: Mosquito nets and your wife’s inspiring work led me to think that “the previous generation EA” was worthwhile “world changing “ for the impact it had right now right here. That’s amazing work and I certainly believe that lost part was a great goal: thanks for that inspiration.
Why do you think the goal is ambiguous? I’m not sure if this quote is why you think it is ambiguous:
we lack the basic knowledge and tools to even predict let alone change the “world” in the next two years
But this is questioning our capacity to predict or change the world, rather than whether “putting serious effort into not wiping ourselves out” is a good goal to have.
There is a very specific and concrete definition of “wipe ourselves out”: the complete extinction of the human species. There are a few other specific cases too, but this is the main one.
That does not sound like a good goal. It’s too ambiguous and lofty. I realize there are a lot of smart folks associated with the concept of EA but this goal ( good or not) seems more aligned with the White Savior complex with a great deal of humility lacking. We should at least be aware of our limitations: we lack the basic knowledge and tools to even predict let alone change the “world” in the next two years let alone fool ourselves into thinking that “we” (and I mean the self elected saviors in the EA group) are the right people to do it.
It was kinda cool to see the mosquito net era; but this new era of McAskill et al is frankly intellectually dishonest and disgusting almost like the imperial / colonial style. The ftx fuckery is an unrelated problem but it beautifully drills a giant hole into this whole long termism 80000 hours AI savior stuff. The private texts between him and Elon really explains how deep the connections are to basically twist the meaning of EA to push whatever power play/PR is needed.
Thanks for the pointers, I enjoy reading them even though I disagree with the premise. One important criticism is that “donating to experts and people on the ground” seems probably better than “let’s embed and try to be experts in things we have no business to be in”.
To close my rant here as a nobody: Mosquito nets and your wife’s inspiring work led me to think that “the previous generation EA” was worthwhile “world changing “ for the impact it had right now right here. That’s amazing work and I certainly believe that lost part was a great goal: thanks for that inspiration.
Why do you think the goal is ambiguous? I’m not sure if this quote is why you think it is ambiguous:
But this is questioning our capacity to predict or change the world, rather than whether “putting serious effort into not wiping ourselves out” is a good goal to have.
There is a very specific and concrete definition of “wipe ourselves out”: the complete extinction of the human species. There are a few other specific cases too, but this is the main one.