If there were no great essays with similar themes aside from Eliezer’s, I’d be much more inclined to include it in a series (probably a series explicitly focused on X-risk, as the current material really doesn’t get into that, though perhaps it should). But I think that between Ord, Bostrom, and others, I’m likely to find a piece that makes similar compelling points about extinction risk without the surrounding Eliezerisms.
I see. As I hear you, it’s not that we must go overboard on avoiding atheism, but that it’s a small-to-medium sized feather on the scales that is ultimately decision-relevant because there is not an appropriately strong feather arguing this essay deserves the space in this list.
From my vantage point, there aren’t essays in this series that deal with giving up hope as directly as this essay. I think Singer’s piece or the Max Roser piece both try to look at awful parts of the world, and argue you should do more, to make progress happen faster. Many essays, like the quote from Holly about being in triage, talk about the current rate of deaths and how to reduce that number. But I think none engage so directly with the possibility of failure, of progress stopping and never starting again. I think existential risk is about this, but I think that you don’t even need to get to a discussion of things like maxipok and astronomical waste to just bring failure onto the table in a visceral and direct way.
I see. As I hear you, it’s not that we must go overboard on avoiding atheism, but that it’s a small-to-medium sized feather on the scales that is ultimately decision-relevant because there is not an appropriately strong feather arguing this essay deserves the space in this list.
From my vantage point, there aren’t essays in this series that deal with giving up hope as directly as this essay. I think Singer’s piece or the Max Roser piece both try to look at awful parts of the world, and argue you should do more, to make progress happen faster. Many essays, like the quote from Holly about being in triage, talk about the current rate of deaths and how to reduce that number. But I think none engage so directly with the possibility of failure, of progress stopping and never starting again. I think existential risk is about this, but I think that you don’t even need to get to a discussion of things like maxipok and astronomical waste to just bring failure onto the table in a visceral and direct way.