[Disclaimer: I consider myself low on “EA orthodoxy” relative to the median poster here. As relevant here, I would find a world in which all good-seeking work was done in an EA way deeply unsatisfying. And I think the ideal state of the world is, at a minimum, less “capitalistic” than the current state.]
As for myself, I don’t really reach the theoretical question posed here due to skepticism about tractability as a practical matter. So my first point of interest would be learning more about effective (yet ethical) ways of bringing about socialism. My view—obviously overgeneralized! -- is that the current left spends a lot of its time and energy on virtue signaling rather than getting its hands dirty with practicalities. It’s also unclear what the counterfactual impact of—I say this lovingly! -- a few thousand smart ~nerds and a few billion dollars would be here.
Many EAs would probably assert that they are doing more for communism’s potential than all but perhaps a few left activists, because radical change is clearly a long-term project and will never happen if (e.g.) AI or a pandemic kills us all first.
[Disclaimer: I consider myself low on “EA orthodoxy” relative to the median poster here. As relevant here, I would find a world in which all good-seeking work was done in an EA way deeply unsatisfying. And I think the ideal state of the world is, at a minimum, less “capitalistic” than the current state.]
As for myself, I don’t really reach the theoretical question posed here due to skepticism about tractability as a practical matter. So my first point of interest would be learning more about effective (yet ethical) ways of bringing about socialism. My view—obviously overgeneralized! -- is that the current left spends a lot of its time and energy on virtue signaling rather than getting its hands dirty with practicalities. It’s also unclear what the counterfactual impact of—I say this lovingly! -- a few thousand smart ~nerds and a few billion dollars would be here.
Many EAs would probably assert that they are doing more for communism’s potential than all but perhaps a few left activists, because radical change is clearly a long-term project and will never happen if (e.g.) AI or a pandemic kills us all first.