As a fellow german, my strongest objection is that “Zukunftsschutz” has a non-academic vibe to it. E.g. you mentioned the similarity to “Klimaschutz” and the climate movement, which is, while being constituted by educated people, a non-academic movement (I am saying this based on my experiences in the climate movement, which weren’t coined by epistemic-rigorous standards). Additionally, “Klimaschutz” and “Zukunftsschutz” are both similar, and both sides take up similar initial premises (“Let’s save our future, by doing good.”) but different conclusions and implementations (it’s easy to imagine that “Zukunftsschutz” is part of the standard set of answers to “hey, what do we want to put on our banner/poster/demonstration sign?”). Thus, they are likely to be thrown together PR-wise.
In turn, words with “ismus” give of a more academic vibe. I don’t know what exactly the target group is supposed to be, but when it is indeed everybody with a strong analytical mindset, with strong chances of success in an EA cause area, then I think we want to appear more high-profile/academic?
So, I am curious, did you consider these things already and still push for “Zukunftsschutz”? If yes, let me know why :)
(Thank you for conducting this survey, this is really valuable!)
Purely academically speaking, “Zukunftsschutz” lacks precision: “Longtermism is the view that positively influencing the longterm future is a key moral priority of our time.”
Someone believing in longtermism may want to engage in “Zukunftsschutz”, but the latter seems to be downstream from the former (a moral stance vs. an activity)
Not every believer in longtermism may want to engage in “Zukunfsschutz”, not every “Zukunfsschützer” may believe in longtermism.
I think we might do well with the framing in outreach projects if we were e.g. aiming for a certain policy change such as pandemic preparedness. But less for outreach with the goal of getting like-minded people on board.
I don’t know what exactly the target group is supposed to be, but when it is indeed everybody with a strong analytical mindset, with strong chances of success in an EA cause area, then I think we want to appear more high-profile/academic?
This isn’t about the German translation specifically, but I don’t think EA/longtermism should be aimed specifically at people with an analytic mindset. We have many of those, and the analytical side is pretty strongly ingrained in the ideas and materials of the movement. But we lack people with other perspectives that might contribute to our efforts or improve our concepts of what a better world is. Less-analytical parts of EA are “neglected” in a way.
I think both EA and longtermism are demanding a lot of critical thinking and we should thus encourage that the movement also consists of analytical people in the future.
Though I also agree that EA probably lacks many less analytical disciplines such as marketing.
What kinds of people exactly do have in mind that the community needs more?
I think I mixed some things up semantically (can’t find anything good to back my understanding of it), so I retracted my comment. I’m not native in English either 😅
But I’d like to see more e.g. psychologists, anthropologists, social workers, artists of various kinds in EA.
As a fellow german, my strongest objection is that “Zukunftsschutz” has a non-academic vibe to it. E.g. you mentioned the similarity to “Klimaschutz” and the climate movement, which is, while being constituted by educated people, a non-academic movement (I am saying this based on my experiences in the climate movement, which weren’t coined by epistemic-rigorous standards). Additionally, “Klimaschutz” and “Zukunftsschutz” are both similar, and both sides take up similar initial premises (“Let’s save our future, by doing good.”) but different conclusions and implementations (it’s easy to imagine that “Zukunftsschutz” is part of the standard set of answers to “hey, what do we want to put on our banner/poster/demonstration sign?”). Thus, they are likely to be thrown together PR-wise.
In turn, words with “ismus” give of a more academic vibe. I don’t know what exactly the target group is supposed to be, but when it is indeed everybody with a strong analytical mindset, with strong chances of success in an EA cause area, then I think we want to appear more high-profile/academic?
So, I am curious, did you consider these things already and still push for “Zukunftsschutz”? If yes, let me know why :)
(Thank you for conducting this survey, this is really valuable!)
Adding to your general point:
Purely academically speaking, “Zukunftsschutz” lacks precision: “Longtermism is the view that positively influencing the longterm future is a key moral priority of our time.”
Someone believing in longtermism may want to engage in “Zukunftsschutz”, but the latter seems to be downstream from the former (a moral stance vs. an activity)
Not every believer in longtermism may want to engage in “Zukunfsschutz”, not every “Zukunfsschützer” may believe in longtermism.
Agree with these points.
I think we might do well with the framing in outreach projects if we were e.g. aiming for a certain policy change such as pandemic preparedness. But less for outreach with the goal of getting like-minded people on board.
This isn’t about the German translation specifically, but I don’t think EA/longtermism should be aimed specifically at people with an analytic mindset. We have many of those, and the analytical side is pretty strongly ingrained in the ideas and materials of the movement. But we lack people with other perspectives that might contribute to our efforts or improve our concepts of what a better world is. Less-analytical parts of EA are “neglected” in a way.
I think both EA and longtermism are demanding a lot of critical thinking and we should thus encourage that the movement also consists of analytical people in the future.
Though I also agree that EA probably lacks many less analytical disciplines such as marketing.
What kinds of people exactly do have in mind that the community needs more?
I think I mixed some things up semantically (can’t find anything good to back my understanding of it), so I retracted my comment. I’m not native in English either 😅
But I’d like to see more e.g. psychologists, anthropologists, social workers, artists of various kinds in EA.