But if you express it as a hypothetical choice between being a person who didn’t know about any of this and had no way of finding out, versus what I have now, I choose the former.
I can’t believe to hear this from a person who wrote about Ugh fields. I can’t believe to read a plead for ignorance on a blog devoted to refining rationality. Ignorance is bliss, is that the new motto now?
Well look, one has to do cost/benefit calculations, not just blindly surge forward in some kind of post-enlightenment fervor. To me, it seems like there is only one positive term in the equation:: the altrustic value of giving money to some existential risk charity.
All the other terms are negative, at least for me. And unless I actually overcome excuses, akrasia, etc to donate a lot, I think it’ll all have been a mutually detrimental waste of time.
I can’t believe to hear this from a person who wrote about Ugh fields. I can’t believe to read a plead for ignorance on a blog devoted to refining rationality. Ignorance is bliss, is that the new motto now?
Well look, one has to do cost/benefit calculations, not just blindly surge forward in some kind of post-enlightenment fervor. To me, it seems like there is only one positive term in the equation:: the altrustic value of giving money to some existential risk charity.
All the other terms are negative, at least for me. And unless I actually overcome excuses, akrasia, etc to donate a lot, I think it’ll all have been a mutually detrimental waste of time.
There is only one final criterion, the human decision problem. It trumps any other rule, however good or useful.
(You appeal to particular heuristics, using the feeling of indignation as a rhetoric weapon.)