I enjoyed this! I don’t quite get the distinction between #1 and #6, though. Is the primary axis around the weirdness of the ideas you’re into? So, Wholesome EAs are anti-weirdness, cheerful utilitarians are weirdness-neutral, and contrarians are pro-weird?
Thanks! I don’t think that’s quite it. I think wholesome EA is in general more skeptical of weird, unproven ideas than many of the others, and is at pains to qualify arguments for such ideas with disclaimers that it is going to sound strange and is maybe wrong, whereas contrarian EA is less interested in that. Cheerful utilitarians are also to an extent characterized by being unconcerned with ideas others find weird, but pretty specifically along the moral access, and with less attraction to weirdness per say than the contrarians. I view them as more being the faction that will casually talk about how excited they are to continuously line our lightcone with computronium powering orgy simulations in a trillion years. There is maybe some tendency to emphasize the weird ideas a bit in this group as well, but not so much because these ideas are just fun to think about, as because it is sassy in a way cheerful utlitarians are disposed to be.
I enjoyed this! I don’t quite get the distinction between #1 and #6, though. Is the primary axis around the weirdness of the ideas you’re into? So, Wholesome EAs are anti-weirdness, cheerful utilitarians are weirdness-neutral, and contrarians are pro-weird?
Thanks! I don’t think that’s quite it. I think wholesome EA is in general more skeptical of weird, unproven ideas than many of the others, and is at pains to qualify arguments for such ideas with disclaimers that it is going to sound strange and is maybe wrong, whereas contrarian EA is less interested in that. Cheerful utilitarians are also to an extent characterized by being unconcerned with ideas others find weird, but pretty specifically along the moral access, and with less attraction to weirdness per say than the contrarians. I view them as more being the faction that will casually talk about how excited they are to continuously line our lightcone with computronium powering orgy simulations in a trillion years. There is maybe some tendency to emphasize the weird ideas a bit in this group as well, but not so much because these ideas are just fun to think about, as because it is sassy in a way cheerful utlitarians are disposed to be.