Consider Egan’s incentives. “A group of effective altruists collects a ton of money, buys anti-malaria nets, saves million African lives (but other millions still die of malaria)” is an improvement over status quo in real life, but it would be a boring and disappointing story.
Cool fictional villains are at least an improvement over the media narrative “EAs are crypto scammers”.
I wonder if there are people who joined the rationalist or effective altruist communities because of recent Egan’s stories. A negative advertisement is still advertisement… I can imagine someone reading the story, then trying to find more on the internet, then joining; the question is whether this actually happens.
Consider Egan’s incentives. “A group of effective altruists collects a ton of money, buys anti-malaria nets, saves million African lives (but other millions still die of malaria)” is an improvement over status quo in real life, but it would be a boring and disappointing story.
Cool fictional villains are at least an improvement over the media narrative “EAs are crypto scammers”.
I wonder if there are people who joined the rationalist or effective altruist communities because of recent Egan’s stories. A negative advertisement is still advertisement… I can imagine someone reading the story, then trying to find more on the internet, then joining; the question is whether this actually happens.